Without Him
by AlexisOptimus
Summary: A take on what would happen if Optimus wasn't the leader, but just another Autobot.  Alright, maybe not just another Autobot, but another soldier that just happens to help out quite a bit.
1. Prologue

What would happen, if a different Autobot was the leader? What if Optimus wasn't Prime, but just an Autobot soldier? How would each of their lives be different if another lead them, and Optimus standing on the side lines?

In each section, a different Autobot leads the Autobots in their war against the Decepticons. Optimus was never Optimus Prime, and until the Autobot leading makes certain choices, the humans never met a single Autobot. Optimus will lend a hand, showing skills that each will use to their advantage. The situations they find themselves in will each be unique, depending on what the leaders choose.

Includes Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and more. Give me a review if you have an idea for another Autobot you'd like to have a chance at leading the entire Autobot army. I'm hoping for one or two more.

Get ready, strap yourself in, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and enjoy the sometimes crazy ride.


	2. Ironhide Part 1

Ironhide, leader of the Autobots walked into the main command room. There, four of his top soldiers stood at attention waiting for him. He checked them over quickly, and was pleased to see that they were fine and were waiting orders.

First in the line, you had Jazz. Jazz was talented at gathering information. From inside enemy lines. He was small in size, which meant that with his stealth, he was able to sneak past guards and get in and out without being caught.

Next, you had Bumblebee. He was a scout for the Autobots. He was extremely loyal to Ironhide. He tried to always follow orders to the letter. He was the youngest in of the four.

Then, you had Ratchet. The medical officer. His advice was often very useful. He wasn't afraid to give Ironhide a piece of his processor when he thought the leader needed it. This kept Ironhide aware of things around him.

Last, certainly not the least, you had Optimus. Second in command, Ironhide's best friend and punching bag and more. Optimus played more parts than anyone that worked for Ironhide. The most loyal Autobot soldier that Ironhide had. Optimus wasn't afraid to speak, and was even known to break orders if it worked for the Autobot's cause. He played both bodyguard, even though his armour was thinner than Ironhide's, and weapons specialist because Ironhide asked him to. He and Ironhide had been friends long enough for them to trust each other greatly. He was Ironhide's most trusted officer.

Ironhide stood in front of them, deciding quickly what they each were to do. "Jazz, status report."

"There's 'Cons attacking an outer city. They're requestin' help," Jazz replied. Ironhide gave a nod.

"Permission to speak, sir," Optimus spoke up. Ironhide turned to him with a nod. "I suggest that we don't send more troops. This seems like a diversion. Send a few soldiers at most. The Decepticons are going to attack a different area that will matter more to our operations. That station means less. It makes no sense for the Decepticons to attack there."

"I'll go," Ironhide said.

"I'll go. Ironhide, Megatron hasn't shown up at the other battle. You need to be here for when Megatron shows himself," Optimus objected. When Ironhide seemed to disapprove, another mech spoke.

"That makes sense. It's the logical thing to do."

"Ironhide, sir. He's right. You need to fight Megatron, not worry about an unimportant attack like this," another mech added.

"Alright. Optimus, you go," Ironhide ordered. Optimus left with nothing more than a nod. Ironhide turned to Ratchet. "You need to stay here. Send First Aid after Optimus to help with injuries. Jazz, I want the soldiers on alert. Bumblebee, you're going to stay in the command center for the battle. Dismissed." Each Autobot set out to do as ordered, with Ratchet shadowing Ironhide.

"He's a strong fighter, I'm sure he'll be fine," Ratchet said. Ironhide nodded. "He's almost always right. There's an attack coming our way."

* * *

><p>Like Ratchet said, Optimus was right. Outer Iacon was indeed attacked. Megatron did show up. Ironhide fought him, and when the Autobots turned out to be ready, the Decepticons retreated. Right after the two attacks finished, the one Optimus was at ended before Ironhide's, the Autobot leader contacted his second in command.<p>

"Optimus, report," Ironhide ordered. Ratchet was standing beside him.

"1/4 of the Autobots stationed were terminated. 1/2 of the remaining were injured," Optimus replied. He was standing at a medical berth, working on an Autobot, though Ironhide and Ratchet couldn't see the Autobot at all.

"Very few injuries and no deaths here," Ratchet informed. Optimus nodded.

"The attack here was point-less. The only thing they wanted was our attention. There is fuel here, enough that it would hurt us if it was taken, but not enough to cripple us. A moment," Optimus said as an Autobot walked over and spoke to him. There was something off when he walked away from the screen. Ratchet noticed it right away. Optimus was limping.

Ratchet stepped away from the screen to check something. He called up a still picture of when Optimus had walked away so he could see Optimus' pede. He called Ironhide over and showed him what he'd found. A cut ran diagonally up the inside of Optimus' right pede. The edges were burnt. He made it known that Optimus should be brought back to base immediatly for repairs. Ironhide nodded before Optimus came back into view. "Optimus, report back to base."

"Ironhide, sir, if this base is attacked right now, we'd lose it. I don't think we can afford it. I need to be here for the time being," Optimus countered.

"Medic's orders. As well as mine. Get back here. We can survive without that station," Ironhide ordered with more force behind his voice.

"I can leave after night fall. Any sooner, and this station, and all of it's fuel, will be lost if Decepticons attack. Please, sir," Optimus asked. Ironhide sighed.

"Once night falls, you leave right away," Ironhide relented. Optimus nodded before giving a quick salut and shutting down the connection. He turned to face Ratchet who was shaking his helm.

"A lot of bots think he's the leader," Ratchet mumbled.

"Yeah, I know. He's just smart and determined," Ironhide said. Ratchet laughed.

* * *

><p>At night fall, Optimus left the station. By then he had managed to get defenses ready to the point another bot could take over. Both Ironhide and Ratchet were waiting for him. As soon as he transformed, Ratchet had hold of his arm and was leading him to their Med center. Ironhide came along as they made their way there. Ratchet pushed Optimus onto a berth then gathered his tools. He inspected the wound before sitting back on the stool. "What happened? I've never seen a wound like this," Ratchet asked. Optimus was quiet until Ratchet nudged him.<p>

"It's from an Autobot weapon, that's why," Optimus replied. Ratchet and Ironhide exchanged a glance.

"Did an Autobot change sides?" Ironhide inquired. Optimus shook his helm.

"A Decepticon pushed me into the Autobot. We both fell, and his weapon cut into my pede."

"How big was the weapon?" Ratchet questioned as he gently pushed a tool into Optimus' pede to get a better idea of how much was destroyed. Optimus showed with his servos, and Ratchet gave him a confused look. "This wound's bigger than that."

"The mech pulled it out. He pulled up some what in panic. He just wanted his weapon back to defend himself. He apologized to me later." Ratchet just sighed.

"I don't think I can repair this. Many of your wires have been welded together. Your creator just had to rebuild you. Your circuitry is unique. No one else has any thing like it. If you're creator was still around, they would have a better chance of repairing this damage. I might be able to fix some of it, but not all. You're always going ta limp," Ratchet informed. Optimus nodded as he swung his legs over the side of the berth.

"It's fine. I can continue to do my job. Thank you, Ratchet. Is this what you wanted me back here for?"

"Yes," Ratchet replied. He stood and moved away so Optimus could get up. "You're free to go." Optimus nodded and followed Ironhide out into the hallway.

Jazz ran through the maze of hallways, trying to locate his leader. He dodged a bot as he caught sight of the Autobot second in command. Where ever Optimus was, Ironhide usually wasn't far away. He ran over to Optimus, and like he thought, there was Ironhide. "Sir. The 'Cons attacked the same station. Our bots barely survived," Jazz reluctantly told them. Optimus looked to Ironhide.

"Thank you Jazz. Are there medics at the station?" Optimus asked.

"Yeah. Enough there for 5 bots for each medic," Jazz answered. Optimus nodded.

"Send a set of soldiers. I don't want to lose that station. Tell them to bring the injured here," Ironhide ordered. Jazz saluted before hurrying off. "Training?" Optimus gave a nod.

* * *

><p>The sound of metal hitting metal was the only sound they could hear. Ironhide swung at Optimus, his servo skimming Optimus' arm. He kicked at Optimus' pede, but missed as the other dodged. He fired a shot set at stun, and managed to hit his mark. They went at it until Ironhide was panting, and Optimus was dented and damaged. He dropped the blade he had been using to the floor, and walked over to Optimus who was laying down, slightly dazed. Ironhide gave Optimus a servo to help him up. "Better, sir?"<p>

"Yeah. Let's get you to Ratchet," Ironhide replied. He wrapped an arm around Optimus, and helped Optimus start to limp to the Med center. On their walk, Bumblebee saw them, and walked over with a question on his processor.

"Are you alright, Optimus, sir?" Bumblebee asked. Since Optimus was the second in command, many called him sir as well. He often waved off the name.

"I'll be fine Bumblebee," Optimus replied. Bumblebee joined them as they continued to either walk or limp.

Bumblebee then stated the obvious, "You're limping. You don't normally have a limp. Even after sparing with Ironhide."

"I was hurt in the battle at the outer station. Ratchet can't repair my pede, so I will always have a limp."

"Oh." Bumblebee then did the same as Ironhide, and pulled Optimus' arm over his shoulder to help him walk.


	3. Ironhide Part 2

Ironhide had never thought of Optimus as fragile. In fact, the leader of the Autobots often thought of Optimus as the strongest in the army. He knew that if Optimus had wanted to take control of the Autobots, he could easily take it. So, it was a strange sight to see Optimus laying in Med bay, as broken as he was, and trapped in stasis lock. If baffled Ironhide completely.

* * *

><p>Ironhide had asked Optimus for advice in how to continue the war. The Autobots were running low of Energon, and the Decepticons would soon go after the Allspark. Optimus had given him a few suggestions. One, was to eject the Allspark into space. It was possible that the Decepticons would continue to fight, but also possible that they would follow the Allspark. Ironhide had liked the idea, but soon found himself agreeing with Optimus. They had battled, while a few had gone to eject it. Optimus had been with Ironhide. As one solider that was chosen put in the code, Optimus disobeyed orders and left to help the other Autobots. No one had noticed until Optimus was nearly killed.<p>

Megatron had Bumblebee by the throat, and was going to rip out the Autobot's vocalizer, when a shot hit him in the shoulder. He'd growled, and turned to lock optics with Optimus who still held the smoking gun. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Optimus had asked. Megatron growled and tossed Bumblebee aside, his vocalizer still functioning.

"And you're saying you're my size?"

"More your size then that youngling," Optimus replied. Megatron charged at him, and he managed to step out of the way at the last moment. Megatron skidded to a stop, and swung a fist out, and caught Optimus in the side. He growled and kicked Megatron's shin plates. He brought out his sword, and managed to stick it in Megatron's side. "I'm more of a challenge." Megatron tackled Optimus, and pinned him.

"Not enough of one," Megatron gloated. Optimus moved his helm as Megatron tried to punch him. He got a pede freed, and gave Megatron a hard shove with it. The Decepticon leader was thrown off him. Both got to their pedes, still ready to fight. Megatron unsheathed his own sword. "Welcome to your doom." Megatron and Optimus struck out, their blades hitting. Optimus caught sight of Bumblebee trying desperately trying to stand. They moved, matching each other's movements, until Bumblebee was behind Optimus. That was when the Autobot took the chance to attack again. They clashed swords, and Optimus used his second to stab Megatron in the side. As he withdrew his sword, he was open to attack. Megatron used that opening, and Optimus cried out as a blade entered his side. He twisted away from Megatron, and took the sword with him. He pulled it out, and tossed it away from the battle. "You're a fool mech. Rushing in to save that youngling will cost you."

"And it wouldn't have costed him?" Optimus lashed out at Megatron's leg. He was blocked, and kicked out at Megatron again. Megatron dodged, and caught Optimus' arm. He gave a hard twist, snapping sounds followed as fluids travelled down his own arm. Optimus bit back any sound, as Megatron let go, and his arm went limp at his side. He scraped Megatron arm with his blade before he was tackled. Megatron punched him again and again. Optimus found himself unable to do anything. He only yelped when Megatron cut part of his good pede. Megatron pulled him up, and slammed his helm into the wall. Hard enough to bring down the entire building on Optimus.

"You've lost. You. Scout. What was the name of the Autobot who saved you?" Megatron asked Bumblebee as he turned from the destroyed building. Bumblebee locked optics with Megatron.

"Optimus," he replied. Megatron grinned, and it was enough to make Bumblebee shiver.

"Optimus. Has a nice ring to it. Don't you think? Too bad he was destroyed saving your sorry metal. You should be grateful. I don't want to kill you any more," Megatron said. He called a retreat. Bumblebee couldn't stand, so he screamed for help with all of his might.

* * *

><p>Ironhide had heard Bumblebee, and looked around. He quickly counted the bots he had. His optics widened when he realized that Optimus was not among the Autobots present. He instantly ran, shouting back that they needed to follow. Dread filled his spark when he caught sight of Bumblebee, who's knee was destroyed. His optics travelled to the stump of a building, but back to Bumblebee when he slid to a stop. "What's wrong? I know you need a medic," Ironhide asked.<p>

"Optimus."

"What?"

"Optimus saved me. Megatrion hit him in the helm off the building. It fell on top of him. He's trapped!" Bumblebee cried. Ironhide felt terror creep through each opening in his armour. He stood.

"Autobots! If you need repairs, beside Bumblebee, you can go back to Iacon. If not, I need your help. Optimus is trapped in the rubble of that building. If you can, I need your help to free him. You must be careful. He'll need repair," Ironhide ordered. Most Autobots instantly started to help. A few able-bodied bots helped those who were injured.

* * *

><p>They'd searched for a while, when one of the younger bots heard a groan as he pulled a piece of metal away. "Ironhide!" The bots around him focused on that area. That was when they caught sight of a servo. They each froze, waiting to see if the bot was alive or not. When it did, there were many echoed calls of Ironhide. He came running, and as soon as he caught sight of the servo, he pulled the heavier pieces of metal away. And instantly wished he hadn't.<p>

He'd found Optimus. Barely alive, and extremely damaged. The arm they'd seen was hanging on by a few cables. The wounds from the battle were leaking. The back of his helm was cracked and a piece of the building was sticking out. He was laying on his face, with one servo under him. His good pede was nearly cut in half. And the fact you could faintly see the blue-ish white glow of his spark on the ground was anything but good.

"Don't. Move him," Ironhide ordered when someone made a move towards the second in command. "Prowl. Contact Ratchet. Tell him to come here. Now. I need help, just to turn him over. Someone has to watch his helm, and make sure that shard of metal isn't touched. You, can you help me turn him over?" Ironhide asked one of the larger Autobots. They nodded, and a young femme volunteered to protect Optimus' helm. They counted to three, and the two males turned Optimus over together. Ironhide carefully pulled Optimus into his lap. The young femme held Optimus' helm the whole time. "Optimus, can you hear me?"

"Y-yes-s. I c-can," Optimus replied. His voice was weak, and static filled. "B-bum-ble-b-bee?"

"Here," Bumblebee called. The mech who had helped Ironhide picked Bumblebee up, and carefully put him down beside Optimus. Bumblebee carefully took the less damaged servo. It was still connected to Optimus' main torso, but the individual digits were slightly squashed, and some were burnt. Optimus opened his optics, but only one lit up.

"Are y-you a-lr-ight? M-meg-a-tron d-didn't h-hu-rt y-you any m-more?"

"No. And I can still talk. Thanks to you," Bumblebee replied. Optimus closed his working optic.

"G-good," Optimus' grip on Bumblebee's servo went slack. He fell limp against Ironhide.

"Is he alive?" Bumblebee frantically asked. Ironhide nodded.

"Close to not being alive, but thankfully he is," Ironhide replied. The roar of an engine was heard. Ratchet transformed instantly, and once he saw Optimus, he closed his optics. He carefully took Optimus from Ironhide, and pulled him into his own lap. He scanned over the second in command, and got the urge to fight a Decepticon and tear it limb from limb.

"We HAVE to get him back to Iacon. Carefully," Ratchet ordered.

* * *

><p>That was what brought them to where they were now. Ironhide stood beside Optimus' berth. Bumblebee was on his own next to it. Enough time had passed so that Bumblebee's knee was back in place, and mostly fixed. Ratchet had hoped that Optimus would wake up by now. The thing is, Optimus had shown no improvement, and now processor activity. Optimus seemed to be completely dormant. Ironhide was told to stop coming around to the Med center, since he'd be informed as soon as Optimus' situation changed at all. Ironhide was going to use the excuse that he was there to see Bumblebee if Ratchet walked in. The small bot was in recharge.<p>

"What're you doing back here?" Ratchet asked. His optics were narrowed at his commander.

"Wanted ta see how Bee's doing," Ironhide replied.

"And ta see Optimus. Ironhide, Optimus isn't changing at all. He's still trapped without thoughts. Bumblebee's gonna be released one he can stand. Why are you here?"

" 'Cause I'm worried. It ain't normal for this to happen. I feel better when I can see him myself," Ironhide answered. Ratchet sighed, but nodded all the same. "I also have information for you too, Ratch."

"And that is?"

"We're going after the Allspark. The 'Cons followed it, and we have ta get it first. Five bots are going. Jazz, Bumblebee, myself-"

"And me and Optimus, right?"

"Yes."

"How soon are we leaving?"

"Once Bumblebee can walk," Ironhide replied. Ratchet dropped the data-pad that he'd been holding. Ironhide gathered it into his servos before handing it back to the medic.

"Are you insane? Optimus probably won't be out of statis-lock by then! And to take him into outer space?" Ratchet cried out. Bumblebee's optics locked with Ratchet's.

"What's wrong?" Bumblebee asked. He swung his legs over the edge of the berth.

"This slaggin lugnut made a plan that's gonna fail. Travelling to outer space with a bot that can't even wake up right now. What good is him being there gonna bring?" Ratchet snapped. Ironhide sighed.

"I'll talk to you once you finish packin' up what you'll need to leave Cybertron. You'll have a small ship, with enough room for you, Optimus, and a number of your tools. Bumblebee, once you can walk, report back to me," Ironhide said. He glanced back to Optimus' broken form, before walking out and heading back to the command center.


	4. Ironhide Part 3

Hey! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or what ever holiday you celebrate)! I'm writing on the brand new laptop we have in the house. I'm still getting used to the new setup. We're getting closer to Earth now. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p>Ratchet had tried in every way possible to make Ironhide change his mind. Nothing worked. He did as he was ordered, and packed up the equipement he would have to keep with him. Not long after, Bumblebee was released from his care. Staying true to his word, Ironhide gave the order for the bots he had selected to leave Cybertron. Their home. Ratchet felt sadness tearing at his spark. They left everything behind.<p>

He had been close friends with Optimus as well, making it that much harder to think that Optimus could be trapped in statis lock forever. The damage had been extreme, and Ratchet hadn't gotten a chance to finish the repairs. He had wrapped Optimus' helm in the bandages they had on Cybertron, which was made from very thin metal. Optimus' good pede was no longer nearly cut in half, since Ratchet had focused on that area the most. He'd made sure the arm hanging on by a few wires was reattached completely. Optimus' chest plates wouldn't close properly. Most of damage still remained. It was driving Ratchet crazy. He couldn't work until they landed on another planet or asteroid. He didn't want to risk doing more damage if the ship sifted on him.

The ship itself was small, with only room for a crew of two. It was set to follow Ironhide thanks to one of the many Autobots they left behind. The main room that contected to cockpit was larger. There wasn't much room with the amount of things Ratchet had taken, but he managed to keep enough room for Optimus to remain lying down and so Ratchet could move around if any of Optimus' systems failed. He hoped it would never come to that. The main comm-link was located in the cockpit, but close to the door of the main room. The only place for Ratchet to sit down was the pilot's seat. He often found himself there, since he could watch where the others were on the sceen.

They had come across a few planets with sentient beings, but no real signs of where the Allspark was. Ironhide was growing frustrated. He knew that Ratchet appreciated when they stopped, both so that he could actually make repairs, and so he could stretch his legs and talk with the others. He couldn't imagine what Ratchet felt, being trapped in the ship with the only other passenger being unconscious. He called for them to rest on a moon they'd come across. He waited for Ratchet to manually land the ship. The others had gathered and were taking in their surroundings by the time Ratchet had landed and climbed down. "What do you want Ironhide?" Ratchet asked, not amused that he was forced to land the ship, again.

"We haven't picked up any traces of the Allspark for a while. Ratchet, you'll have to remain at the back of the group. We're lasting Energon by having you follow that closely. Bumblebee, you're gonna scout ahead. We rest here for a little while," Ironhide ordered after taking in the fact that Ratchet looked like he was about to collapse from lack of recharge. "You're resting too."

"Understood. Can I talk to you alone?" Ratchet asked. Ironhide nodded and followed Ratchet back inside the ship.

"I can't believe how packed this ship is," Ironhide mumbled. He stood in the doorway while Ratchet had gone in more and was kneeling beside Optimus, who was layed on the floor.

"I don't know what you were thinking when you brought Optimus along. If I had to be looking after him, then you could've left me behind. There was plently of medics back on Cyberton."

"But they aren't you Ratch. You're the best. I've told you this already. Why are we going through it again?"

"I'm drained, Ironhide. I haven't had a decent amount of recharge since we left Cybertron. Before that even! I don't know about the younglings, but I can't continue like this. I know you're determined to keep Optimus with you, but this is crazy. You just won't give up. Will you? I tried to tell you BEFORE you followed through," Ratchet's words stung enough to draw a visible flinch.

"I understand," Ironhide mumbled. Ratchet gave him a look of suprise. "Of all the mechs on this mission that are awake, you're the one I want to have support from. But I get what you're saying. We need a break. But I'm not stopping till those slaggin' 'Cons get what's coming. Think about what Optimus would say. Something along the lines of 'We need to protect all those who can't protect themselves.' And I'm gettin' pretty tired of running from the fight. Why not finish it?"

"'Cause your soldiers are feeling run down? At least give them enough time to get some good recharge, and for me to repair Optimus' helm. That might help bring him online," Ratchet said. He noticed that Ironhide seemed to brighten up at the last part of his statement. "Send Bumblebee in, then go get yourself some rest."

"You can't order me around."

"Medic's orders," Ratchet replied. Ironhide glared, but walked away all the same. Ratchet shook his helm as he tried to figure out how to turn Optimus over without causing any more damage. A thought came to mind. Bumblebee hadn't seen what happened to Optimus' helm after the battle. The medic jumped slightly when Bumblebee kneeled beside him, placing a servo on Ratchet's shoulder. "How's your knee?"

"Better. Thanks to you," Bumblebee responded. "What did you need me for?"

"You won't irritate me as quickly as the others. Help me flip Optimus over. Take extra care with his helm," Ratchet instructed. Bumblebee moved to the other side of Optimus, because he was smaller, and the space was very limited. "On three, turn him over so he's against me. One, two, three!" Together, they accomplished their task, but ended up pinning Ratchet slightly. Craddling Optimus' helm, he wiggled out from beneath the second in command. "Thanks. You might not want to watch," he warned. Since Optimus was now positioned on his chest, Ratchet just had to gently untie the metal bandages. He heard a gasp, and instantly his optics met Bumblebee's. He realized that Bumblebee had gasped at the metal Ratchet had been too afraid to remove. Energon had also dried around the shard. "That's what we're trying to fix. I'm hoping he'll wake up after that's out."

"When did he get that? I don't remember him getting hit with a piece of metal there," Bumblebee asked despite knowing that Ratchet wouldn't know. Ratchet told him what to do quickly, and Bumblebee got ready to help. Ratchet provided constant instructions. Bumblebee carefully took hold of the metal, and pulled it out. Ratchet welded some of the smaller Energon tubes closed again, as well as starting to work on repair the rest of the second in command's helm. "Will he get better?"

"I don't know Bee. Keep hoping that he will. Pray to Primus. Don't give up on him. I'll do everything I can to make sure he'll be fine," Ratchet replied. Bumblebee gave him a look, before nodding. "Why don't you get some rest? I'll keep working."

"See ya," Bumblebee said. Ratchet gave a quick wave before returning back to work. Bumblebee left the ship and joined Jazz.

"Heya Bee," Jazz greeted. He was laying down, looking at the stars. "I used to wonder if it was possible to travel out in space. Now, I'm travellin' but don't know where we're headin' . I think Hide and the doc are over workin' themselves. They need to relax like the Jazz man."

"We would ALL be in trouble then," Bumblebee joked. Jazz gave him a mock hurt look. "Are you worried about Optimus not waking up?" Jazz's smile fell.

"I am. I think we all are. But Ratchet's good at fixin' us. Optimus'll come around. I'm sure," Jazz said as he gave Bumblebee a pat on the back, seeing as Bumblebee hadn't layed down but was sitting near Jazz. Bumblebee's optics were focused on the ground. "Don't go beatin' yourself up. Optimus didn't follow orders. It ain't your fault. Relax, Bee. You'll turn into Hide."

"I can't turn into Hide. I'm not leader material anyways," Bumblebee mumbled. Jazz chuckled at the comments.

"I bet Ironhide'll have us leavin' right away in the morning," Jazz said. Bumblebee got the idea, and layed down not that far from where Jazz would be sleeping. He noticed Ironhide stalking around, kicking rocks far enough away that Bumblebee almost didn't see him.

* * *

><p>In the morning, Ironhide met with Ratchet before ordering each of them to get ready to continue in their quest to find the Allspark. Almost reluctantly, they left the planet. Ironhide could tell quite plainly that Ratchet was not impressed. Bumblebee followed orders, and scouted ahead of the group. Jazz stayed directly beside Ironhide.<p>

**::**What if we don't find any clues? We gonna keep searchin' like this?**:: **Jazz

**::**We can't afford to give up. We keep searching**:: **Ironhide

**::**Bumblebee to Ironhide. Come in, sir**::**

**::**Ironhide here**::**

**::**I found something. I think it's the Allspark's location**:: **Bumblebee

**::**Send what you found to each of us. We need to find it. Ironhide out**::**

Ratchet looked over the information, before putting it in the computer of the ship. Once locked on, he contacted Ironhide. The order was given. Bumblebee would go to the planet first, while the Ratchet would meet the others on Mars. Ratchet sat back in the pilot's chair, before turning it to face Optimus. "We're almost there. I just know it."


	5. Ironhide Part 4

Please review! I feel like no one is reading this, even though I'm trying really hard to make this good. Yes, most of the conversation towards the end is from the movie. No, I won't follow the movie exactly for the rest of this storyline. If you have any ideas, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make things make sense and be interesting for you guys. I'm trying! Enjoy.

* * *

><p>The Autobots landed on Mars, and Bumblebee stopped there briefly to transform so that he could enter the planet's atmosphere. After he left. They waited there for months. Ratchet found that working on Optimus was the only way for him to keep from wanting to murder one of his friends. He also received the first sign that Optimus would have a chance at recovering. On the moniter that kept track of any 'brainwaves', it jumped for the first time. When Ratchet caught sight of it, he ran test after test to make sure that reading was right. It was. Optimus was no longer as dormant as they thought he was. He was finally on the road to recovery.<p>

Jazz had found the internet, and surfed it almost constantly. He was delighted to find that just like Cybertron, this planet has music. He found it ironic that he shared a name with one of the styles. He learned the name of the planet was Earth, the squishy things that came in all shapes, sizes, and several colours were called humans, there were all sorts of languages like English, French, Spanish, and so many more, almost 7,000 of them! He found some not so nice things, but he didn't bring them up very often.

Ironhide had target practise on the rocks around him. He was growing frustrated at the lack of results. They'd travelled for so long, and now, so close, they still didn't have the Allspark in their graspe. He didn't blame Optimus, since he was right about the Decepticons leaving, giving their planet time to heal. But all the same it angered him that they were only now finding any signs of the source of their life. Of Cybertron itself. And Bumblebee had yet to contact them from his mission. No good news from Ratchet either, for the medic had chosen to let them know at a later time. So, firing on rock formations was the only thing the leader of the Autobots could find to do. Jazz had even come up to him to show a site he'd found on weapons in an attempt to cheer Ironhide up.

All work, net surfing, and firing stopped when a transmission from Bumblebee was heard over the static.

**::**Bumblebee to Ironhide. Please, come in!**::**

**::**Bumblebee! What have you found?**::** Ironhide

**::**Check out this website**:: **Bumblebee

**::**We need those glasses! Find the person with them. When you do, contact us. We'll join you after that. Ironhide out.**::**

"Ratchet, keep working. Make sure you know what that language was. Jazz, you seem to know it. You'll help us learn it," Ironhide ordered. When Bumblebee sent the information for the website, Jazz had read out the information to them, seeing as the other two had been doing other things instead of surfing the internet. Jazz nodded, and sent a package of data to both of them, filled with each of the languages.

* * *

><p>Back on Earth, Bumblebee located the person who had put the glasses in an online auction. A boy by the name of Samuel James Witwicky. In a stroke of sheer luck, he found that the boy was going to buy a used car. He drove behind the boy and his father in their green car as they drove into the used car dealership. "You think that's funny?"<p>

"Yeah, I think it's funny."

"What's wrong with you?"

"You think I'd really get you a Porsche for your first car?"

"I don't want to talk to you for the rest of this whole thing."

"Oh, come on. It's just a practical joke."

"It's not a funny joke," Sam said. His father laughed all the same. Bumblebee was slightly confused, but brushed it off and found himself agreeing with the boy. He decided to watch the scene play out. A man, the one in charge, yelled to another person, but Bumblebee ignored him. "Here? No, no, no. What is this? You said... You said half a car, not half a peice of crap, Dad."

"When I was your age, I'd of been happy with four wheels and an engine."

"Okay, let me explain something to you. Okay? You ever see 40 year old virgin?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, that's what this is. And this is 50 year old virgin." He motioned to two of the cars in front of him.

"Okay."

"You want me to live that life?"

"No sacrifice, no victory."

"Yeah, no victory. You know, I got it. The old Witwicky motto, Dad."

"Right."

"Gentlemen. Bobby Bolivia, like the country, except without the runs. How can I help you?" A black gentleman asked the two Witwickys. They exchanged a glance before saying anything.

"Well, my son here, looking to buy his first car," the father replied. Sam looked beyond disturbed.

"You come to see me?" Bobby asked softly.

Without looking up Sam replied, "I had to."

"That practically makes us family. Uncle Bobby B, baby. Uncle Bobby B."

"Sam."

"Sam, let me talk to you. Sam, your first enchilada of freedom awaits underneath one of those hoods. Let me tell you something, son. A driver don't pick the car. The car'll pick the driver." They weren't watching, so Bumblebee used it as his chance to drive into an open spot. "It's a mystical bond between man and machine. Son, I'm a lot of things, but a liar's not one of them." The comment made Bumblebee wonder. "Especially not in front of my mammy. That's my mammy. Hey, Mammy!" He pointed over at a couple of older women with the same tone of skin. She gave a finger. "Oh, don't be like that. If I had a rock, I'd bust your head. I tell you, man, she deaf, you know?" He laughed and started to guide Sam towards the cars. "Well, over here, every piece of car a man might want or need." They passed a petting zoo? Why was that there? Bobby walked over to Bumblebee and ran a hand over the trunk. Sam put a hand on the door frame.

"This ain't bad. This one's got racing stripes."

"Yeah. It got racing... Yeah, what's this? What the heck is this? I don't know nothing about this car." As Bobby spoke, Sam stuck his head inside to take a look. And the window rolled up and cut of his head! No, it didn't. Just joking. Sam caught sight of the Autobot symbol decorating the wheel. He opened the door and tried sitting in the front seat, oblivious to both the fact Bobby was yelling to someone about the car and the fact he was sitting inside an alien.

"Feels good," he mumbled. His father stood outside the door looking inside. Sam rubbed the dirt on the Autobot symbol away with his thumb.

Having heard Sam's comment, Ron called out to Bobby, "How much?"

"Well, considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and custom paint job..."

"Yeah, but the paint's faded," Sam commented. Bobby leaned down.

"Yeah, but it's custom."

"Custom faded?"

"Well, it's your first car. I wouldn't expect you to understand. Five grand," he replied to Ron standing.

"No, I'm not paying over four. Sorry."

Bending down to speak to Sam again, "Kid, come on, get out. Get out of the car."

"No, no, no. You said cars pick their drivers."

"Well, sometimes they pick a driver with a cheap father. Out the car. Now, this one here for four Gs is a beaut," Bobby said moving from Bumblebee over to a yellow Bug beside it. Sam reluctantly started got out.

"There's a Fiesta over there with racing stripes," Ron pointed out.

"No, I don't want a Fiesta with racing stripes."

"This is a classic engine right here," Bobby informed as he got in the Bug and shut the door. "I sold a car the other day..." He didn't finish as Bumblebee opened his door and it crashed into the Bug. Bobby made a comment about getting sledgehammer and knocking the dents out.

"...Greater than man..." Came from Bumblebee's radio.

"That one's my favorite, drove all the way from Alabammy."

"...Go..." Followed by a high pitched chirping squeal, and the windshields in every car shattered at once. It was an explosion of glass shards raining onto the cars and humans. But it did it's job. After mumbling in disbelief, Bobby turned and sold Bumblebee for $4,000. He was on his way to completing his mission. He hoped that by the time he did, Optimus would be awake. How proud Optimus would be of the little scout.


	6. Ironhide Part 5

**Disclaimer: I own NOTHING but the altered plot line. Most of this is directly from the movie (the dialogue the most)**

* * *

><p>Sam had driven Bumblebee home that day. The following day, the Witwickys were outside doing work on their backyard. The wife complained of the tiles being uneven. Sam walked outside, and Bumblebee focused on him alone. Sam laughed, showing him keys and stepped down off the porch and onto the grass. "Sam..." His father moaned.<p>

"What?"

"I do not like footprints on my grass."

"What foot... There's no footprints," Sam objected.

"That's why I built my path. So why don't you go from my grass onto my path, okay?"

"It's family grass, Dad," Sam responded.

"When you own your own grass, you'll understand," his father said.

"This... I can't do it anymore. You're putting girl jewelry on a boy dog," Sam complained to his mother.

"What?"

"He's got enough self-esteem issues as a Chihuahua, Mom."

"That's his bling. I want you home at 11:00!" She shouted the last part as Sam unlocked Bumblebee's driver side door.

"Yeah, alright," Sam responded.

"11:00!" His father called.

"Please, drive safely!" She yelled.

"Seat belt on," the father added. As Sam started Bumblebee up, a cloud of black exhaust fumes filled the air.

"Wow. You are so cheap," Mrs. Witwicky said.

"Well, it's his first car. Supposed to be like that," he retorted.

Bumblebee drove down a dirt road with his two passengers. Sam, and a boy by the name of Miles. "Dude, are you sure we're invited to this party?" Miles asked.

"Of course, Miles. It's a lake. Public property," Sam replied. The drove up to the curb. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh, dude, Mikaela's here. Just don't do anything weird, all right? I'm good right?" They both got out of the car.

"You're good."

"Okay," Sam said. They started to walk towards where a couple of jocks were near a blue truck.

"Hey, guys, check it out," one said directing their focus to Sam and Miles. "Hey, bro. That car. It's nice. Hey." Miles started to climb a tree that was nearby. "So, what are you guys doing here?"

"We're here to climb this tree," Sam replied nervously.

"I see that. It looks... It looks fun," the jock responded.

"Yeah."

"You know, I thought I recognized you. You tried out for the football team last year, right?"

"Oh, no, no, that... No. That wasn't like a real tryout. I was researching a book I was writing," Sam responded. Bumblebee could clearly tell that Sam was lying about whatever he was talking about.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah? What's it about? Sucking at sports?"

"No, it's about the link between brain damage and football," Sam replied. There was a pause where neither said anything. "No, it's a good book. Your friends'll love it. You know, it's got mazes in it and, you know, little colouring areas, sections, pop-up pictures. It's a lot of fun."

"That's funny," the jock responded. He started to advance on Sam. A girl with tanned skin and long dark hair stepped in his way.

"Okay, okay. You know what? Stop," she said. She walked back towards the truck and the jock moved away slightly.

"Hey, guys, I know of a party. Let's go, let's head," the jock said. He finally backed down fully from Sam.

"You got to get out of the tree right now. Get... Just get out of the tree right now, please. What are you doing?" Sam demanded. He walked back to Bumblebee.

"Did you see that dismount? All the chicks were watching," Miles said.

"You're making me look like an idiot. We both looked like idiots just now," Sam snapped.

"Hey, how about you let me drive?" Mikaela asked the jock Trent.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. This is not a toy. These 22s, I don't want you grinding them. No. Why doesn't my little bunny just hop in the back seat?"

"Gosh, I can't even tell you how much I'm not your little bunny," Mikaela stated. She shouldered past him.

"Okay," he responded slightly shocked at her words. "You'll call me." Miles basically rolled into the window to get inside Bumblebee. Sam watched as Mikaela walked away.

"...Who's gonna drive you home, tonight..." Came from the radio.

"Hey, man, what's wrong with your radio?" Miles asked.

"I'm gonna drive her home tonight," Sam mumbled.

"What? She's an evil jock concubine, man. Let her hitchhike."

"She lives 10 miles from here, okay? It's my only chance. You got to be understanding here, all right?"

"All right. We'll put her in the back. I'll be quiet," Miles responded.

"Did you say, 'put her in the back?'," Sam asked in disbelief.

"I called shotgun," Miles said. Sam walked around to the diverside door.

"I'm not putting her in the back. You got to get out of my car."

"That's a party foul."

"What rules?"

"Bros before hos."

"Miles, I'm begging you to get out of my car. Okay?"

"You can't do this to me," Miles objected.

"You gotta get out of my car right now," Sam said. Miles finally got out of the car, and Sam drove after Mikaela.

"... Who's gonna come around when you break..." The radio continued.

"Mikaela! It's Sam! Witwicky. I hope I didn't get you stranded or anything. You sure? So, listen, I was wondering if I could ride you home. I mean, give you a ride home in my car, to your house," Sam fumbled. Mikaela rolled her eyes and opened the door. "There you go." He cleared his throat as she got in and took a seat. He started to drive. "So..." There was an awkward pause that was only filled with Sam clearing his throat more and Bumblebee's engine.

"I can't believe that I'm here right now," Mikaela said. Sam looked around before responding.

"You can duck down if you want. I mean, it won't hurt my feelings," Sam offered.

"Oh, no, no, no. I didn't mean here with you. I just meant here, like, in this situation, this same situation that I'm always in. 'Cause, I don't know, I guess I just have a weakness for hot guys. For tight abs and really big arms," Mikaela clarified.

"Big arms? Well, there's a couple new additions in the car. Like, I just put in that light there," Sam mentioned. He pointed backwards in a way to try and show off what muscles he had. "And that disco ball. And so the light reflects off the disco ball." He was just showing off, and she didn't seem overly impressed.

"Are you new to school this year? It's your first year here?" She asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"Oh, no, no. We've been in the same school since first grade."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Yeah, a long time."

"Well, do we have any classes together?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Really? Which?"

"History. Langauge Arts. Math. Science," Sam replied.

"Sam."

"Sam. Yeah."

"Sam Wilkicky."

"Witwicky," he corrected.

"Gosh, you know what, I'm sorry. I just..."

"No, it's cool."

"I just didn't recognize you."

"Yeah, well, that's understandable," Sam responded. The key turned and the engine started to shut off. "No, no, no. No, come on." The radio dial turned, filling the car with music. "Sorry, I'm just working out the kinks. You know, it's a new car."

"...When I get that feeling I want sexual healing..."

"This radio is, like, you know... It's an old radio, too, so..."

"...sexual healing..."

"Look, this isn't something that I, you know... I can't get this radio to stop. Look, I wouldn't try this on you. 'Cause this is a romantic thing that I'm not trying to do. Not that you're not worthy of trying something like this on."

"No, of course not."

"I'm a friend of yours. I'm not a romantic friend. Romantic friends do this. I mean, I'm not that friend. I mean, we... I could be.

"...Wow, I feel good..."

"Just pop the hood," Mikaela ordered. She got out.

"Stupid. Shut up, shut up, shut up," Sam snapped at the dashboard.

Mikaela pulled the hood up to look inside. "Whoa, nice headers. You've got a high-rise double-pump carburetor. That's pretty impressive, Sam."

"Double-pump?"

"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster."

"Oh, I like to go faster," Sam said as he stared at the skin of Mikaela's stomach that was revealed since she had her arms up on the open hood.

"And it looks like your distributor cap's a little loose."

"Yeah? How'd you know that?"

"My dad. He was a real grease monkey. He taught me all about this. I could take it all apart, clean it, put it back together."

"That's weird. I just wouldn't peg you for mechanical," Sam stated. He rested his head on the outside of the hood so she couldn't see and mumbled "Oh my gosh."

"Well, you know, I don't really broadcast it. Guys don't like it when you know more about cars than they do. Especially not Trent. He hates it."

"Yeah, no, I'm cool with, you know, females working on my engine. I prefer it actually."

"Okay, you want to fire it up for me?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, no problem."

"Thanks."

"You know, I was thinking. You know, if Trent's such a jerk, why do you hang out with him?" Sam asked. He tried the key a couple of times, but each time the car refused to start.

"You know what? I'm just... I'm gonna walk. Good luck with your car," Mikaela said with a sigh. She walked around to the door and grabbed her bag before letting down her hair and walking away.


	7. Ironhide Part 6

"All right. Walking's healthy, right?" Sam asked as he walked Mikaela walk away from him. He then scrambled inside of Bumblebee to try the key again. "Oh, gosh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on, please. Please, you gotta work for me now. Don't let her walk away. Come on, come on, come on. Please, please."

"Okay," Bumblebee replied softly. When Sam tried once room, the engine roared to life.

"...Baby come back any fool could see..."

"Hey!" Sam yelled.

"...There was something in everything about you. Baby come back you can blame it all on me..."

"Hey! Wait a second!"

"...I was wrong and I can't live without you..."

"There it is," Sam said as they came to a stop outside Mikaela's house. It was dark before they arrived.

"I had fun. So, you know, thanks for listening."

"Oh, yeah, yeah."

"You... You think I'm shallow?"

"I think you're... No, no, no. I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with you," Sam responded.

"Okay."

"Yeah."

"All right, I'll see you at school," Mikaela said. She got out of the car and headed inside. Sam groaned slightly.

"Stupid. That was a stupid line. 'There's more than meets the eye with you.' Stupid. Oh gosh. Oh my gosh, I love my car," Sam whispered.

"Thanks," Bumblebee responded so softly Sam didn't hear him.

* * *

><p>Later that night, Bumblebee decided that since Sam and his parents were asleep that he should try to contact Ironhide and the others. He started his engine without noticing that the sound had dragged Sam out of dreamland. Bumblebee started to drive, and Sam followed on his bike after him. "Where are you going with my car, buddy? Where you going?" Sam asked.<p>

"Contacting the others," Bumblebee replied. Sam looked suprised for a moment, but continued to follow.

"Hello? 911 emergancy! My car has been stolen! I'm in pursuit! Right? I need all units, the whole squadron. Bring everyone! No, don't ask me questions, all right? My father's the head of the neighborhood watch!" Sam shouted on the phone. Bumblebee drove up to the scrap yard before driving through the gates that opened to allow him through. Bumblebee transformed to send out his message, and Sam caught sight of him. Bumblebee shone a beam of light into the night sky to alert the other Autobots.

After watching that for a few seconds, Sam flipped out his phone again to record a message. "My name is Sam Witwicky. Whoever finds this, my car is alive, okay? You saw that? Since this is my last words on Earth, I just wanna say, Mom, Dad, I love you, and if you find _Busty Beauties_ under my bed, it wasn't mine. I'm holding it for Miles. No, no, wait that... Okay, that's not true. It's mine and Uncle Charles gave it to me. I'm sorry. Mojo, I love you." He snapped the phone shut and stood and looked around. The dogs saw him and began to chase him. The chains were ripped from the wall from how hard the dogs pulled on them. Sam scrambled over a pile of bricks, and fell into wood shavings. He stumbled as he got back up and started running. "No, you're a good dog! Good dog! Good dog! Oh my gosh!" He climbed up onto a pile of junk that he hoped with all his heart that it would be high enough to keep him safe until some one found them. "Whoa! Hey, hey, hey! All right! Oh! No! No!" Bumblebee broke through the old wood planks that were in his way. "Okay. Please, please don't kill me! I'm sorry! Take the keys! I don't want them! Car's yours!" He threw the keys at Bumblebee and ran. Outside, the police had driven up and stopped in front of Sam. "Good, you're here."

"Let me see your hands!" One shouted.

"No, no, no! It's not me!"

"Let me see your hands."

"The guy's inside."

"Shut up! Walk towards the car," one officer ordered. "Put your head on the hood."

* * *

><p>In the morning, after the officer had spoken with both Sam and his father, the teen had been released. Bumblebee had stayed away from the house just in case for the rest of the day, but had gone back the following morning. This, of course, caused Sam to freak out. Sam ran outside with a pink bike with streamers. Bumblebee drove after him. Most of the time Sam was shouting his favorite word. No. At one point, Sam wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, so he caught the sidewalk wrong and flipped over the handle bars. He landed on his back right near where Mikaela was sitting with several other girls. "Sam?"<p>

"Hi," he responded after he finished groaning.

"That was... That was really awesome," she said.

"Well, it felt awesome."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm not okay, all right? I'm losing my mind a little bit. I'm getting chased by my car right now. I got to go," Sam replied. He picked the bike up and got ready to ride it again.

"You know what? I'm gonna catch up with you guys later," Mikaela said. Sam got on his bike and pedalled away. Bumblebee followed. Mikaela watched as a police car stopped her from riding after Sam on her electric scooter. The police car followed after Bumblebee and Sam, so once it was clear, she did too. Sam rode into a parking complex that looked run down. He knew his car wasn't far from him, and he could feel his heart beating hard in his chest to the point where it felt like it wanted to burst from his chest. He stopped, and the police car pulled to a stop as well.

"Oh, great. Cops," Sam said. "Officer!" He rode up to the car. "Listen!" The door swung open and knocked Sam off the bike. Again. He landed on his face with a groan. "Oh, that hurt." He slowly rolled to rest on his back. He got to his feet and started to talk to the officer he thought was inside by laying against the hood. "Listen to me! Thank God you're here! I've had the worst day ever! I've been... I've been followed here on my mother's bike! Right? And my car's right there and it's been following me here! So get out of the car!" He was knocked off his feet when the police car suddenly lurched forward. He scrambled backwards as the car continued to stop and start forwards in little jerking revs. "No! Stop! Oh, gosh! Okay, okay! Okay, all right! Okay! I'm sorry! I'm... I didn't mean to hit your car! Look! Okay, look, look, look! Stop, stop!"

One of the headlights changed form. It seperated itself from the main car, and moved forward and was connected still to the car by sharp cutting tines or prongs. It rotated as it approached Sam's face. The second did the same, but not at Sam. Just forwards. The other part of the light raised above it, and was far less menacing. "Please! Okay, what do you want from me?" The lights retracted at his words to return to where they should be. "Okay." The air seemed to freeze for a moment, when just as suddenly the car itself broke apart in a terrifying display of moving parts. Sam's eyes went wide and he was too afraid to try to move. "Oh gosh, no, no!" He yelled as he got to his feet as quickly as possible, and ran as fast as his feet could carry him. "Oh, man! Oh, man, man, man! Oh, gosh! Oh, man!" The car turned robot easily caught up in just a few of his gigantic strides. He swung his arm and Sam was sent flying into one of the cars and cracked the windshield as he landed against it. "It's a bad dream." The robot grabbed onto either wheel of the car and leaned in close to Sam's face. He slammed a hand down beside Sam.

"Are you username Ladiesman217?" He demanded. He pointed his gun at Sam.

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Are you username Ladiesman217?"

"Yeah."

"Where is ebay item 21153? Where are the glasses?" His voice was starting to raise. He spun the wheels on his arms, and Sam choose that moment to flee. He got up and started to run. Just as he cleared the car, the robot flipped it away. He ran after Sam.

Sam caught sight of Mikaela and yelled, "Get back!" He ran towards Mikaela. "Stop!" Mikaela turned the handles in Sam's direction. Sam tackled her, making her fall on her back.

"Gosh! What is your problem, Sam?" She demanded as she rolled over to get up.

"Okay, there's a monster right there! It just attacked me! Here he comes! All right, get up. Get up and run! You have to run! Okay," Sam ordered. Bumblebee drove up and swerved near them right into Barricade. He completed the circle and came to a stop in front of Sam and Mikaela. He chose to remain silent to avoid scaring the two.

"Sam, what is that thing?" Mikaela asked.

"You have to get in the car. Get in," Sam replied.

"I don't want to."

"Get in the car. Trust me. Trust me!"

"Sam!"

"Get in! Go, go, go, go, go," Sam sad as he got in to sit in the driver's seat. As soon as Mikaela was in, the car started to drive. Bumblebee saw in his rear view mirror that Barricade had transformed and was chasing after them. Sam shouted go as Bumblebee got onto the road with Barricade hot on his tailpipe. Bumblebee tried to ignore their yelling as he crashed through the windows of a closed down building. He drove through several different obstacles in his path. It was dark by the time he even lost Barricade for a moment. He instantly locked his doors. "We're locked in," Sam mumbled. They were both breathing heavily. "The car won't start. At least we ditched the monster, right?" Barricade stopped basically in front of them. Bumblebee started his engine, and drove past Barricade. He swerved again, and opened his door. He threw the two from him as he readied himself for the coming battle. He transformed and raised his fists.

Barricade drove up and tranformed. He lept into a spin overhead and tackled Bumblebee to the ground. Once Barricade was upright again, he ejected Frenzy so the minicon could focus on the humans. Barricade swung his mace like weapon and connected with Bumblebee's side sending the yellow bot flying. A kick sent Bumblebee crashing into another building. He rolled to his pedes and grabbed onto Barricade's arm and slammed him into a small building. This created another cascade of sparks. Barricade refused to go down alone, and so they went tumbling down a small hill grappling. He finished his brief battle with Barricade, while Sam and Mikaela dealt with Frenzy. Bumblebee walked back towards where Sam and Mikaela were.

"What is it?" Mikaela asked.

"It's a robot," Sam replied with the obvious. "But like a... Like a different... You know, like a super-advanced robot. It's probably Japanese. Yeah, it's definiatly Japanese.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't think it wants to hurt us. It would have done that already."

"Really? Well, do you speak robot?" Mikaela asked. "Because they just had, like, a giant droid death match."

"I think it wants something from me."

"What?"

"Well, 'cause the other one was talking about my ebay page."

"You are the strangest boy I have ever met."

"Can you talk?" Sam yelled up to Bumblebee.

"Yes," he replied.

"So, what was that last night? What was that?"

"A message to my comrads. To bring them here to Earth."

"What are you, like, an alien or something?" Mikaela asked. Bumblebee nodded. He transformed and opened the door.

"Do you have anymore questions you want to ask me?" The two had a small talk before Mikaela got in followed by Sam. Bumblebee drove over to where Mikaela's bag had been dropped, and she quickly snatched everything and got back in.

"Who are you?" Sam asked after a long pause.

"My name's Bumblebee. My friends'll be able to tell you more, but I'm an Autobot from the planet Cybertron. We are searching for the source of life of our home planet called the Allspark. It was blasted from our world to keep it away from the Decepticons. The other robot you saw me fighting was called Barricade, and he is a Decepticon. We have been at war for as long as I can remember," Bumblebee replied. The humans both seemed to pause to try and absorb what they were being told. They started their own conversation which Bumblebee simply listened to. The came the comment that ticked him off slightly.

"You know what I don't understand? Why, if he's supposed to be, like, this super-advanced robot, does he transform back into this piece-of-crap camaro?" Mikaela asked. Bumblebee 'fish-tailed' to a stop and opened his door.

"Oh, see? No. Get... No, that doesn't work. See?" Sam responded.

"Move it, you moron!" A man in one of the cars that were blocked yelled.

"Great, now... See? Fantastic. Now you made him mad. That car is sensitive. I mean, $4000 just drove off," Sam complained. Bumblebee drove back up after having scanned a newer camaro. "Wow," was the only thing that Sam could say. They drove off towards where Bumblebee knew his friends would be landing.


	8. Ironhide Part 7

Sam and Mikaela watched in awe as three flaming shapes sped towards Earth. They both noticed a fourth shape. It was much larger, and unlike the other three, it didn't have debris flying from it. Mikaela moved her hand into Sam's. The shapes seperated and each landed in a spot alone. The largest one landed much more gently in a field not far from where the two humans were standing near Bumblebee. "Come on, we must go," Bumblebee said. He drove towards the field, and the two ran after him. When they got close, they saw the door of the ship shift, and a ramp come down. An Autobot stepped out and headed towards Bumblebee who transformed and greeted him. "Ratchet!"

"Bumblebee, how I've missed you! I was gonna slag Jazz if we didn't get here soon. Primus, he was annoying! He can be worse than the twins," Ratchet responded. Bumblebee laughed before he looked to where the ship was resting in the field. "He's still alive, but nothing's changed. He's not awake, if that's what you're wonderin' ."

"Who are you talking about? And who are you?" Sam asked. Ratchet and Bumblebee exchanged a glance before the medic knelt to be closer to the humans.

"My name is Ratchet. I'm the medic of this group of Autobots, at least. There are five of us that I know of on Earth. The one we were talking about is one of the greatest heroes we had on Cybertron," Ratchet began.

"During one of the last battles, he saved my life by distracting the Decepticon leader. He was forced into statis lock, and hasn't woken up since. He's our second in command, but so many bots will follow him anywhere," Bumblebee finished.

"Statis lock? What's that?" Sam asked. Ratchet's optics grew distant as he searched the internet for something the humans would understand.

"Similar to a coma."

"Oh. And you brought him with you?" Sam questioned. Ratchet gave frustrated sound and both nodded.

"Humans, we need to get to the others. Bumblebee, I'll take them to Ironhide myself. Turn on the cloaking shield in the ship. You can track us, and meet up when you can," Ratchet ordered as he folded his shape into his vehicle form. "Slag, I need to scan a vehicle. Frag it all." What Sam guessed were doors opened and both humans carefully got in. Ratchet sped off in silence and quietly drove around town until he came across an accident. While there, he scanned one of the search and rescue hummers and the white armour he'd had changed into the yellow green of the other vehicle. His interior shifted and both humans bit back a scream. "You're alright. I wouldn't hurt you."

"You never told us your hero's name," Mikaela said in an attempt to change the subject. It worked.

"Optimus," Ratchet replied. Both nodded. "He was a great mech. Kind and talented. Ironhide relied on him to the point that now I think Hide's lost it without Optimus helping him."

"Sounds like a nice guy," Mikaela said. A chuckle came from the radio. Mikaela smiled until Ratchet sighed. "Not a good topic?"

"It just brings up the fact that he's only barely hanging onto life and there's nothing I can do. It also makes me think about past events that were anything but good. Forgive me. We're close to our destination," that ended any conversation.

Pulling to a stop in an alleyway, Sam and Mikaela caught sight of a black GMC truck and silver sports car heading in their direction. The two humans got out and watched with slight fear as all the vehicles transformed around them. The tallest, the black truck, knelt down in front of them and looked them other. "Who are you?" He asked.

"My name's Sam. This is Mikaela. Who are you?"

"My name's Ironhide. I'm the leader of the Autobots. The tiny one is Jazz. I think you met our resident loud-mouth and medic Ratchet. And Bumblebee," Ironhide responded. He laughed as Ratchet's servo connected with the back of his helm. "Samuel James Witwicky, descendent of Archibald Witwicky?"

"They know you're name," Mikaela whispered.

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"We're autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron," Ratchet informed.

"Just call us Autobots. It's easier," Jazz said.

"Autobots. Bee said that," Sam stated. Each Autobot nodded in response.

"Why are you here?" Mikaela asked.

"We're looking for the Allspark. And we must find it before Megatron," Ironhide replied.

"Mega-what?" Sam tried to repeat. Ironhide brought up a hologram of what Cybertron was like just before the war was taken into space and to Earth.

"He was a soldier. One of us until he gave into a want for power and betrayed us. He became the leader of the Decepticons. Anyone who wasn't with them was against them were destroyed. Our war nearly destroyed our planet and the Allspark was sent into space. Megatron followed it here where Captain Witwicky found him," Ironhide informed.

"My grandfather."

"Megatron proved himself to be horrible at flying straight and crashed. He was frozen when your grandfather got to him. Captain Witwicky touched something he shouldn't have and activated his navigation system. The cube's location was imprinted on his glasses."

"How'd you know about his glasses?" Sam asked.

"Ebay," Ratchet supplied. Sam repeated that. "If the Decepticons find the Allspark, they will use its power to transform Earth's machines and build a new army."

"The humans wouldn't survive," Ironhide finished. "Sam, you hold the key to Earth's survival." The Autobots gathered closer together before them, with Ironhide standing beside Ratchet, and Bumblebee who had driven up at some point during the conversation beside Ironhide and Jazz beside Ratchet.

"Please tell me that you have those glasses," Mikaela said. Sam nodded. "Good. Where?"

"We have to go to my house. It's there," Sam said. Both Sam and Mikaela jumped as the sound of transformations came from each Autobot as they shifted back into looking like vehicles. Bumblebee's door opened and they both got in. Bumblebee drove behind Ironhide with Jazz and Ratchet behind them.

Sam gave Bumblebee the directions and the scout kept his comm-link open so the others knew where to go as well. Bumblebee drove past Ironhide when they got close. Sam got out and walked in front of Bumblebee. "You got to stay here and you're gonna watch them," Sam instructed.

"Okay, okay," Mikaela responded.

"All of them. Do you hear what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, okay, okay."

"Five minutes, all right?" Sam asked. He ran along the path and towards the house.

"Thanks for staying on my path," Ron said as Sam ran up.

"Oh, yeah. No, no, Dad. Hey!" Sam yelled. He shut the screen door when Ron tried to open it. "The... Oh, the path. I'm sorry. I forgot the path. I'm gonna sweep the whole thing right now. How about that?"

"You know, I buy half your car..."

"Yeah."

"...then I bail you out of jail and then I just decided to do all your chores."

"The chores."

"Yeah. Life is great, huh?"

"Life... Life is fantastic, is how good it is," Sam turned and caught sight of Ironhide standing and had to quickly find a way to make Ron go back inside. "It's so... Oh, the trash cans. Sorry, Dad. I'm gonna do the trash cans now."

"No, no, I don't want you to strain yourself," Ron objected as he tried to push the door open. Sam pushed on it again.

"No, no, I won't strain myself, Dad."

"I'll do it."

"It would hurt my feelings if you do it."

"You sure? I don't mind, I don't..."

"I promise... No, no, no, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do the trash cans and I'm gonna scrape the grill and I'm gonna... I'm gonna sweep up the whole house right now." Sam turned as Ironhide carefully stepped over the plants.

"Tonight, right now?" Ron asked.

"Right now. The..." Sam turned at a sound and found Bumblebee nearly at eye level with him beside the house. "I love you. Gosh, I love you just so much right now."

"You know, Mom wanted me to ground you. You're three minutes late."

"Right? Oh, well, just another thing you did for me, Dad, because you're such a swell guy." Sam said. Bumblebee motioned for Ironhide to stop walking since he was going to draw the father's attention.

"One more thing, huh?"

"All right, I love you! Sleep good, handsome man!" Sam said. Once his father walked away from the door so he couldn't see, Sam swung around to face the Autobots now gathered in his backyard. "What are you doing? What are you doing?" He walked towards Ironhide who stepped in a wide circle to avoid crushing Sam. "No, watch the path! Watch the path! Watch the... Please, please, please." Ironhide was watching Sam and not what else was around his pedes and took a step towards the fountain in the middle of the yard. "No, no, wait. No, no, no! Oh, no!"

"Whoops. My bad," Ironhide responded. He shook his pede to dislodge any of the stones remaining between the metal.

"Oh, I... You couldn't... You couldn't wait for five... You couldn't wait for five minutes?"

"You're a pushy human," Jazz remarked.

"Ironhide's never patient," Ratchet stated. There was a 'hey' from Ironhide that was completely ignored by everyone present.

"I told you to just stay! Just stay! Gosh!" Sam exclaimed. Mojo pushed the door open and ran into the yard. Mikaela gasped as she caught sight of the Autobots standing there. "I told you to watch them. I told you."

"Okay, you know what? They seem to be in a little bit of a rush," Mikaela responded.

"Oh, this is bad. No!" Sam shouted when he caught sight of Mojo standing poised to pee beside Ironhide's pede. "Mojo, Mojo! Off the robot! Gosh!"

"Oh, wet," Ironhide mumbled. He shook his pede.

"No, no, no, no, no! Easy! Easy!" Sam ran over and snatched the dog before Ironhide could lower his pede on top of the dog and end it's life. "Hold on! Hold! This is Mojo. This is Mojo. He's a pet of mine." He backed up slightly as Ironhide shoved a gun in his direction. "He's a pet. Okay? That's all. If you could just put the guns away... Put the... Put them away. Please."

"You have a rodent infestation."

"A what?"

"Shall I terminate?"

"No, no, no, no. He's not a rodent, he's a Chihuahua. This is my... This is my Chihuahua. We love Chihuahuas! Don't we?"

"He's leaked lubricants all over my pede," Ironhide growled.

"He peed on you? Bad Mojo. Bad Mojo!"

"Bad Mojo," Ironhide repeated.

"I'm sorry. He's got a male dominance thing. That's all it is," Sam said. He calmed down as Ironhide did and watched as the cannons shifted to be stored away in the black mech's arms. Ironhide grunted.

"My pede's gonna rust."

"All right," Sam mumbled. He ran between Ratchet's pedes and narrowly avoided being punted across the yard. He made a shushing sound at the giant robots as he ran towards the house, not putting Mojo down. "Shut up and go hide!"

"Just hurry," Ironhide growled. Sam went inside the house and the Autobots each approached the house to get a better look. "Autobots, help Sam search."

"Where are they? No, no, no, no, no," Sam mumbled. He stopped searching when he heard the Autobots get closer and saw Ratchet holding Mikaela up to the window. "What? What is this?"

"You need to hurry," Ratchet responded.

"They really want those glasses," Mikaela stated. Sam helped her through the window.

"Come on. What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna help you."

"Okay."

"Hurry," Ratchet added through the window.

"Okay. Yeah, no, no. It's definitely gone," Sam said. He continued to franticly search.

"What do you mean?" Mikaela asked.

"My glasses were in the bag. They were in the backpack and now the backpack isn't here."

"Well, they're gonna ne mad, so what do you wanna do?"

"So what I think you should do is you should... You should check this whole... This whole section here. Just give it a clean sweep, and I'll get the corner here," Sam instructed. Mikaela stood after she'd gotten in trouble for looking in something she should've and looked out the window. "Okay. What now? No. No, no. No, no, no." Each Autobot had transformed in Sam's yard. "This isn't hiding. This isn't hiding. This is y backyard, not a truck stop. Oh, gosh. Oh!"

"Sam? Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam. He's back here," Mikaela called.

"I can't deal with this. I can't..." Sam muttered as he ran at the window. "What? Oh, no, no, no. This is my mother's flower..." Ironhide looked down.

"Oops."

"Okay, listen. You got to listen to me. If my parents come out here and see you, they're gonna freak out. My mother's got a temper, okay?" Sam said. Ironhide sighed and stepped back a little.

"We need those glasses."

"I know you need the glasses. I've been looking everywhere. They're not here. They're definitely not here," Sam responded. Ironhide growled and Sam moved away slightly.

"Keep looking," Ironhide snapped.

"Look, I need you to be quiet for five minutes. Ten minutes. Okay? Please, I'm begging you. You got to... You're making a racket. I can't concentrate. You want me to look and I'm hearing..."

"Alright already, don't blow a gasket," Ironhide growled. He moved away before Sam could say anything else. "Autobots, get back."

"Move!" Ratchet snapped at Jazz who was in his way.

"What's the matter with you? Can't you be quiet? He wants us to be quiet," Ironhide said. He watched as Ratchet didn't and the medic ran straight into a det of power lines with the result of electrocuting himself, spinning, setting off his siren, and falling on his aft on top of a garden shed. This caused the houses around them to shake and send Ron into a panic.

"Wow! That was tingly!" Ratceht commented. "You got to try that!"

"Yeah, that looks fun," Ironhide responded. He left Ratchet laying there as the lights in all the homes went out. "Nice job, Hatchet."


	9. Ironhide Part 8

Hello everyone! Hope you hadn't forgotten about me! I hope you enjoy this chapter, which again is mainly talking but it starts to lead away from chapters where there is only talking, and towards where things are different from the movie. Please, pretty please, review!

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><p>Panic continued to set in as Sam heard his parents call his name from down the hallway. To make things ten times worse, Ironhide told Ratchet to point a light through the window. "Come on, hurry," Ironhide hissed.<p>

"Listen, we've got a major issue in here. What's with the light? You gotta stop the light. What's going on? Turn it off. You gotta tell him to shut it off. Shut it off," Sam told the black Autobot leader.

"Sam, are you in there?" Ron called. Sam ran from the window towards his door. "How come the door's locked? You know the rules. No doors locked in my house!" Sam led Mikaela to where she could hide.

"You know he'll start counting if you don't open the door!"

"One more chance. Five..."

"Oh, dear."

"Four. It's coming off the hinges, pal."

"He's counting! Sam, just open the door."

"Three. Two."

"He's counting."

"Stand back."

Sam opened the door at that moment and asked, "What's up? What's with the bat?"

"Who were you talking to?" Ron asked. Sam gave him a look to say that he had no idea what his father was talking about.

"I'm talking to you."

"Why are you so sweaty and filthy?" His mother questioned. Sam looked at her.

"I'm a child. You know, I'm a teenager."

"We heard voices and noises and we thought maybe you were..." His mother started.

Ron looked past Sam. He cut his wife off, "It doesn't matter what we thought. What was that light?"

"No, what light? What?" Sam was pushed past and the door was removed from his hands. "There's no light, Dad! There's no light!" Sam tried to grab onto his father to lead from the room. His heart was pounding against his ribs. "You got two lights in your hand! That's what it was. Maybe it bounced..."

"There was light under the door," Ron objected. He was getting to close to finding out Sam was doing. Sam freaked out.

"Look, you can't... You can't just bounce into my room like that. You got to knock. You got to communicate."

"We knocked for five minutes," Ron responded.

"I'm a teenager."

"We knocked," Judy repeated.

"You didn't knock. You were screaming at me, okay?"

"No."

"This is repression, what you're doing here. You're ruining my youth, okay?"

"Oh, for Pete's sakes!" Judy cried out. "You are so defensive!"

"No, no, Dad," Sam said as he tried to ignore his mother's comment.

"Yeah, well, we saw a light," Ron stated. He walked further into Sam's room. Towards where Ironhide and Ratchet were standing.

"Oh, parents," Ironhide whispered. He motioned for Ratchet to get out of sight. Only for him to nearly be seen through the bathroom window. Just as Ron turned, he moved back, bumping into the house as he did so. "Earthquake! It's another one! Another earthquake! Get in the doorway! Aftershock! Aftershock! Oh, I hate these. Got to ride it out. Ride it out!"

"Quick, hide," Ironhide hissed. Ironhide went to one side of the house, Ratchet joining him, Jazz ducked under the window, and Bumblebee hid under the front portico. Ron continued to shout out complaints such as 'the yard is destroyed.' "The parents are very irritating."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ratchet absently responded as he stood to continue to watch what was going on inside the house.

"I could take them out..." Ironhide said.

"Don't you dare! What is wrong with you?" Ratchet snapped quietly. He stopped himself from smacking the black bot. Just barely.

"I'm just saying we could. It's an option," Ironhide growled while giving Ratchet a glare.

"We heard you talking to somebody, Sam," Judy continued. "We wanna know who."

"Mom, I told..." Sam started. He didn't notice Mikaela stand up. All at once the Witwickys turned at the sound of the young woman clearing her throat.

"Hi, I'm Mikaela. I' m a... I'm a friend of Sam's," Mikaela said. This earned a round of giggles from Judy.

"Gosh, you're gorgeous. Isn't that the prettiest girl?"

"She can hear you talking, Mom."

"Thank you," Mikaela said with a smile.

"Do you have my backpack?" Sam asked suddenly.

"Oh, it's in the kitchen," Judy replied.

As they spoke, four black vans with police lights drove up to their house. The Autobots had already transformed and driven away. Men poured from the vehicle and approached the house. Sam hurried into the kitchen and grabbed his bag just as the door bell rang repeatedly in an amazingly annoying fashion. Ron opened the door to a man in a black suit.

"Ronald Wickity?"

"It's Witwicky. Who are you?"

"We're the government. Sector Seven," the man replied. He flashed his badge in Ron's face.

"Never heard of it."

"Never will. Your son's the great-grandson of Captain Archibald Wickity, is he not?"

"It's Witwicky," Ron repeated. The sector seven agent began to enter the Witwicky house.

"May I enter the premises, sir?" He asked, getting into Ron's face.

"Ron, there's guys all over the front yard," Judy called from another room.

"What the heck is going on here?" Ron asked.

"Your son filed a stolen car report last night. We think it's involved in a national security matter," the agent replied.

"National security?"

"That's right. National security," the agent said. As both of the parents began to freak out for different reasons, the agent calmly asked his men for samples.

"What is this?" Sam asked when he entered the room.

"How you doing, son? Is your name Sam?" The agent asked. When Sam replied with a yes, the agent said, "Well, I need you to come with us."

"Whoa, way out of line," Ron objected.

"Sir, I am asking politely. Back off."

"You're not taking my son."

"Really? You gonna try to get rough with us?"

"No, but I'm gonna call the cops because there's something fishy going on around here."

"Yeah. There's something a little fishy about you, your son, your little Taco Bell dog and this whole operation you got going on here."

"What operation?"

"That is what we are gonna find out."

Another agent approached the first and whispered, "I think direct contact." The first agent looked between Sam and the other man.

"Son?" He called.

"Yeah?" Sam responded.

"Step forward, please."

"Just stand?"

The agent held up a device that beeped like crazy when held near Sam's chest. "Fourteen rads. Bingo! Tag 'em and bag 'em!" There was a fair bit of commention then as Sam and Mikaela were put in the back of one of the vans.

"So, LadiesMan217. That is your eBay username, right?"

"Yeah, but, you know, it was a typo and I ran with it," Sam replied.

"What do you make of this?" The agent asked. He pressed a button on Sam's cell phone and the recorded message played. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, that sounds like LadiesMan," Mikaela replied.

"Last night at the station, you told the officer your car transformed. Enlighten me."

"Well, here's what I said, okay? 'Cause this is a total misunderstanding that my car had been stolen..."

"Really?"

"...from me, from my home, but it's fine now because it's back! It came back!"

"Well, not by itself," Mikaela tried to cover for Sam's slip.

"Well, no."

"Because cars don't do that because that would be crazy," Mikaela laughed. Each person, minus the driver, joined in with forced laughter.

"That's funny. That is so funny," the agent lied. "So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?" The atmosphere became so thick that even a knife wouldn't have been able to cut it.

"Oh, you mean, like a Martian? Like what, _E.T_? No," Sam responded.

"It's an urban legend," Mikaela said.

"You see this? This is an I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-get-away-with-it badge. I'm gonna lock you up forever," the agent threatened.

"Oh, gosh. You know what? Don't listen to him. He's just upset 'cause he's got to get back to guarding the mall," Mikaela hissed.

"You, in the training bra, do not test me. Especially with your daddy's parole coming up."

"What? Parole?" Sam asked in confusion. He looked between the agent and Mikaela.

"It's nothing."

"Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?"

"You know those cars my dad used to teach me to fix? Well, they... They weren't always his," Mikaela said.

"You stole cars?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"Well, we couldn't always afford a babysitter, so sometimes he had to take me along." Sam shut his eyes.

"She's got her own juvie record to prove it! She's a criminal. Criminals are hot. That'd be a real shame if he had to rot in jail the rest of his natural life," the agent teased. No one in the car bothered to pay attention to the agent's little device that began to beep rapidly until they nearly crash into a giant black pede. The car spun, once again crashing into the alien's leg. "Big! It's big!" A servo shattered either front window.

The Autobot lifted the car up.

"I can't see it! I can't see it!" The driver shouted.

"Shift you weight towards the front!" Sam cried.

The roof tore off in the Autobot's grip, the van falling the short distance to the ground. The roof was then thrown off to the side, allowing those in the destroyed van to see the rather upset Autobot Commander. He dimmed his lights enough that the humans actually COULD see.

"You are in trouble now," Sam taunted. "Gentlemen, I want to introduce you to my friend, Ironhide." The agent in the passenger seat stood slowly.

"Taking the children was a bad move," Ironhide growled in a low voice. Guns were grabbed and pointed at the massive alien. "Autobots, their weapons." Bumblebee, Jazz, and Ratchet jumped down from their hiding places on the bridge causing many humans to jump.

"Freeze!" Jazz barked. "Gimme those." He used a magnet in his servo to rip the weapons from the humans.

"Whoa!" Several men shouted.

"Hi, there," The head agent, the one with still sitting in what was left of the van, said.

"You don't seem suprised to see us," Ironhide said as he got into the agent's face.

"I have protocols I have to follow. Besides. I have something of yours," the agent replied. Ironhide's optics narrowed.

"And that is?"

"I can't tell you."

"Get out of the car. Now!" At the barked command, all four humans carefully climbed out.

"What is Sector Seven? Answer me," Sam demanded.

"I'm the one who asks questions around here. Not you, young man!" The agent shouted back.

"Watch it human," Ratchet snarled. The sounds of more vehicles approaching reached their audios.

"You all came in a ship, didn't you?" The agent asked. Ironhide growled. "We found it." A gasp ripped itself from Bumblebee as the optics of each Autobot went wide.

"Where is it? What did you do with it!" Ironhide roared. His weapons cooled and he motioned for his bots to stand down. They each did, minus Jazz who refused to give the weapons back to the humans just yet. Several men restrained Sam and Mikaela and led them to a vehicle before shoving them inside. "Where did you take him? Give him back to us!" Ratchet stood frozen behind his leader as the humans scattered and headed towards their own vehicles, leaving the Autobots behind. One by one they transformed, Ironhide grabbed the glasses that Sam had dropped before he did so. And Sam couldn't tear his eyes away from the look of misery plastered on the faces of the Autobots. His friends.


	10. Ironhide Part 9

"This has to work," Ironhide said softly as he carefully held the glasses.

"Fire it up, 'Hide," Jazz said. Ironhide turned to them and activated a beam that allowed them to see an image of the planet Earth.

"The code. The code on these glasses indicates the All Spark is 230 miles from here," Ironhide said with slight pride. At least something was willing to work with them.

"I sense the Decepticons are getting ready to mobilize," Ratchet stated. "They must know it's here, as well."

"What about Optimus?" Jazz asked. "We can't just leave him to become some human experiment!"

"We don't have the time to rescue him and accomplish our mission. This is what Optimus would want," Ironhide said with a heavy spark. "The humans are a primitive and violent race. But we were the same. They're just young and have a lot to learn. But Optimus would've found something worth saving in them. Let's do it for him."

"For Optimus!" Ratchet cried.

"For Optimus!" Jazz echoed.

"The All Spark must be destroyed. If nothing works, I'll unite it with my spark."

"Ironhide, that's suicide. The Cube is raw power. It could destroy you both," Ratchet said.

"I've failed Optimus once. I won't do it again. I'm not gonna let the humans pay for our mistakes. I'm ending the war. One way or another. It's been an honor serving with you all. Autobots, roll out!"

"We rolling!" Jazz said.

* * *

><p>"Hey, kid," Agent Simmons greeted Sam and Mikaela once they arrived at Hover Dam. "I think we got off to a bad start, huh?" He placed a hand on Sam's shoulder. "You want a latte? HoHo? Double venti macchiato?"<p>

"Where's their ship?" Sam responded, ignoring Simmon's greeting.

"Son, I need you to listen to me very carefully. People can die here. We need to know everything you know. We need to know it now," Tom Banachek said.

"Okay. But first, I'll take their ship, my parents. Maybe you should write that down," Sam responded. After a pause he added, "Oh, and her juvie record. That's gotta be gone. Like, forever."

"Come with me. We'll talk," Tom replied. Mikaela whispered her thanks to Sam as they passed Simmons.

"Alright, here's the situation. You've all had direct contact with the NBEs," Simmons said.

"NBEs?" A black solider by the name of Robert Epps repeated.

"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. Try and keep up with the acronyms. What you're about to see is totally classified," Simmons explained.

"What is this?" Keller, the Secretary of Defense asked.

"We think when he made his approach over the North Pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934," Tom replied.

"We call him NBE One," Simmons stated.

"Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know, but, I mean, that's Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons," Sam said as he looked up at the giant frozen form of Megatron.

"He's been in cryostasis since 1935. Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind," Tom stated.

"Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age, the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse-engineered by studying him. NBE One. That's what we call it," Simmons invaded Sam's personal space as he spoke.

"And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?" Keller inquired.

"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security," Tom responded.

Keller gave him a look as he walked by, "Well, you got one now."

"So why Earth?" The special opps Commander William Lennox asked.

"It's the All Spark," Sam replied.

"All Spark? What is that?"

"Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube-looking thing. Anyway, Mr. NBE One here, AKA Megatron, that's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the Cube to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's their plan," Sam informed.

"And you're sure about that?" Simmons asked.

"Yeah. You guys know where it is, don't you?"

After a pause, Tom said, "Follow me."

"You're about to see our crown jewel."

They were lead into a room with glass windows. The view was filled with a gigantic cube, just covered with alien writing. It amazed even the military men.

"Carbon dating puts the Cube here around 10,000 BC. The first Seven didn't find it until 1913. They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the cube as well as NBE one. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete. A perfect way to hide its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside," Tom said.

"Wait, back up. You said the dam hides the Cube's energy. What kind exactly?" Maggie, the only other female with them, asked. They were led into another room where a high-tech looking box was set up. They were locked inside.

"Anybody have any mechanical devices? BlackBerry? Key alarm? Cell phone?" Simmons asked.

"I got a phone," Glen said as he tossed his cell phone over to Simmons. The agent placed it inside the box.

"We're able to take the Cube radiation and funnel it into that box," Simmons said. Everyone watched as the phone came to life, transformed, slamming into the walls of the box and firing off rounds at them. As the little robot began to break the box, Simmons fried the poor things. The next thing they knew, the dam was attacked, the lights flickering.

"Gentlemen, they know the Cube is here," Keller stated. After a quick check with one of the other workers, Banachek found that Megatron was thawing.

"Do you have an arms room?" Will asked.

"They're popping our generators!" Tom yelled. The group followed him through the halls towards where Megatron was held. Even though they knew that he was going to be waking up within moments. They were unaware of the Autobots driving toward the dam.

_"The cryogenic system is failing! We're losing NBE One!"_ A male voice over the intercom shouted.

Will, his team, and several members of Sector Seven were gathering weapons from the arms room. "Forty millimeter sabot rounds on that table!" Simmons informed. The lights flickered off for a moment, sending a chill of fright down the spines of every human. Sam stomped over to Simmons.

"Where is their ship? Ya know, the ship you took from the giant alien robots?" Sam demanded.

"It's confiscated," Simmons responded, briefly looking up at the teen.

"Then unconfiscate it."

"We don't know what that thing holds!"

"You don't know."

"Maybe you know, but I don't know."

"Just give it back to the Autobots. Give them the Cube while you're at it. You just wanna sit here and wait and see what happens?"

"I have people's lives at stake here, young man."

"Take him to the ship!" Will roared. He slammed the agent into a car a few steps behind Simmons. Guns came out from the Sector Seven agents as well as Will's team. "Drop it." Brief fights broke out as several men disarmed the sector seven agents.

"Drop your weapon, soldier," Simmons ordered. "There's an alien war going on and you're gonna shoot me?"

"You know, we didn't ask to be here," Will hissed.

"I'm ordering you under S-Seven executive jurisdiction," Simmons stated.

"S-Seven don't exist," Epps said.

"Right. And we don't take orders from people that don't exist," Will responded.

"I'm gonna count to five. Okay."

"Well, I'm gonna count to three," Will hissed.

"Simmons?" Keller called.

"Yes, sir?" Simmons asked.

"I'd do what he says. Losing's really not an option for these guys," Keller informed. At glancing between Will and Keller, the agent finally agreed.

"All right. Okay. You want to lay the fate of the world on giant alien robots? That's cool," Simmons was finally let up. He walked over to the door and opened it. On the other side was the same ship that Sam and Mikaela had seen Ratchet exit in all its glory.

"What... What's in there?" Will asked Sam softly. The teenager turned to him with certain eyes.

"Another Autobot."

"Another Autobot?" Epps asked in alarm, his voice kept low to avoid Simmons overhearing them.

"Yeah, another Autobot. The others really care about the one in the ship. We need to give them back the ship," Mikaela replied. The black soldier's eyes were wide as he looked at her.

"You didn't see the looks on their faces. They were scared. Besides, they're the good guys. They want to protect Earth, not destroy it," Sam said. Will sighed but nodded. They were going to get the ship back to the Autobots.


	11. Ironhide Part 10

"Sir! Vehicles approaching!" A man yelled. Banachek turned to the man. The worker pulled up an image from a security camera.

"That's the Autobots! They're coming!" Sam cried out upon seeing the picture.

"Let them in! We're giving them back their ship!" Banachek ordered.

* * *

><p>As soon as the Autobots arrived, the gates were opened just long enough to allow the four vehicles inside. Ironhide transformed and glare at the humans responsible. Especially Simmons. "Where is he?" The black mech demanded. Simmons held his hands up in surrender.<p>

"Easy there, Mr. Robot. You can have it," Simmons said. Ironhide growled at the choice of words.

"Ironhide, follow me. I'll take you to your ship," Sam said. The Autobot leader nodded and walked behind the humans, glaring at anyone who even looked at him wrong. They were lead towards the ship. The ground below them shook and Ratchet, who had transformed along with Ironhide earlier, glanced up at the ceiling.

"We better hurry," Ratchet stated. Ironhide nodded. Sam took a detour which lead them through a doorway that was large enough for the Autobots to go through. As soon as they caught sight of the ship, Ratchet took the lead and ran towards it, jumping as he did so to avoid squashing any humans that he passed. He felt the seals of the ship, checking for any damage, ignoring the guns now pointed at his back.

"Stand down. They're on our side," Banachek said. Reluctantly, the weapons were lowered.

Ironhide was the next to approach, joining Ratchet near the back of the ship. "Untouched. He's safe. I'll fly the ship again rather than driving."

"Guys, the Allspark's here," Mikaela informed them. Each Autobot exclaimed at nearly the same time, with Ratchet offering to stay with their ship.

"Show us 'Kaela," Jazz said. They set off to where the gigantic Allspark was waiting for them.

"The Allspark," Ironhide whispered when they entered the room where the Cube was located. He slowly approached the Cube and reached out towards it.

"Okay, here we go. He doing something. He doing something," Epps said. Energy seemed to travel from Ironhide's servos into the metal of the Cube as it began to fold, transforming into a smaller Cube that almost fit perfectly in a servo.

"We need to get out of here," Ironhide stated.

"He's right. We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hanger," Will agreed.

"What?" Ironhide roared in slight outrage.

"Let's just get outta here first, 'Hide. Worry about aft kickin' later," Jazz suggested.

"Mission City is 22 miles away. We're gonna sneak that Cube out of here and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city," Will continued. "But we cannot make a stand without the Air Force."

"This place must have some kind of radio link!" Keller cried in agreement.

"Yes. Shortwave, CB," Simmons replied.

"Right, yes."

"Sir, you got to figure out some way to get word out to them. Let's move!" Will said and led his team from the room.

"In the alien archive, sir!" Simmons informed. "There's an old Army radio console."

"Will it work?"

"Anything's possible! Did you see that…?"

"We need to get the Allspark outta here!" Will yelled.

"Give it to the doc bot. He can take it in the ship," Jazz suggested. Ironhide took off at a run towards Ratchet and the ship.

"Mr. Secretary! Get our birds in the air. When we get to the city, we're gonna find a radio, and I'll have Epps vector them in, okay?" Will asked.

"Affirmative!"

"_Warning! NBE One cryo-containment failing." _A voice announced over the intercom. Ice began to break off of Megatron's frozen form.

"Set a perimeter around the alien ship!" Will ordered.

"This way, this way, this way!" Simmons shouted as he led his own group towards the archive.

Megatron's optics lit up with their blood red light as he broke apart the remaining ice, freeing himself from the bonds. "I am Megatron!" He roared. He began to destroy the surrounding structures where, unfortunately, many humans stood. The humans scattered as Megatron's weapons dug into the metal of the metal of the platform.

* * *

><p>By then Ratchet had already boarded the ship, started it, and was piloting it out of the dam. Jazz was on one side, Ironhide on the other, and Bumblebee behind it. They were led by the many vehicles that the humans were driving.<p>

* * *

><p>The humans remaining at the dam tried spraying the freezing agent on Megatron who simply transformed and blasted away. Once outside, he transformed. Starscream, who had been flying nearby, transformed as well, landing on a different level of the dam wall. "I live to serve you, Lord Megatron," Starscream rasped.<p>

"Where is the Cube?" Megatron demanded.

"The humans have taken it."

"You fail me yet again, Starscream. Get them!" Megatron commanded.

* * *

><p>The Autobots drove as quickly as possible. The ship was flying just above them cloaked. A siren drew Sam's attention, and the teen looked in Bumblebee's rear view mirror. The same police car that had terrorized Sam earlier was following them. Along with several other vehicles. These vehicles forced human driven cars off to the side. One construction vehicle flipped a car sending it crashing top first into the ground.<p>

Ironhide dropped back, Bumblebee swerving to take Ironhide's place.

The construction vehicle broke apart and began to transform. Ironhide followed suit, and took up running as soon as his legs were formed, making a car swerve to avoid slamming into him. Sam and Mikaela turned in their seats to watch since neither truly had to worry about watching the road.

The Decepticon ran around, destroying a bus with a single swipe. He skated forward on wheels in his pedes, tackling Ironhide as soon as he was in range. The giants crashed over the side of the raised highway, crashing into the roads below. Ironhide nearly smashed a car when he landed. They got up at nearly the same time. Ironhide slammed a fist into the Decepticon's face. One of the 'Cons' optics nearly popped out of his face at the force of the punch. Ironhide threw the light brown mech away from the cars and followed after him. He flipped over the edge, landing on his pedes ready to fight. He grabbed the back of the other mech in one servo, his other gripped the 'Cons' face. It was violently torn away from the body, killing the Decepticon almost instantly.

* * *

><p>In the city, the humans were setting up for a battle. Ratchet gently set down the ship and disembarked with the Cube held carefully against his side. Chaos began to spread through the streets.<p>

"Here, I got shortwave radios," Will said. He shoved them into Epps' hands.

"Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?" Epps asked.

"Well, use them! It's all we got!" Will replied.

"This is like _RadioShack _dinosaur radios or something, man. I'm only gonna get 20 or 30 miles out of these things," Epps complained. He lifted one of the large radios up to his face. "Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?"

"F-22 at 12:00. All right, I want planes for air cover and Black Hawks on station to extract that Cube, you got that?" Will asked. They braked and got out of the vehicles. "Air Force has arrived! Pop smoke!"

"Raptor, Raptor, do you copy?" Epps asked into the radio. "We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction."

"It's Starscream!" Ironhide shouted.

"Please tell me you copy," Epps groaned once more into the radio even though he already had a gut feeling that Ironhide was right.

"Back up! Take cover! Bumblebee!" Ironhide and Bumblebee ran over to a human's semi truck and grabbed onto the front. Together they lifted it.

"No, no, no, no, no! Move!" Will shouted.

"Back up! Back up!"

"Retreat! Fall back!" Will screamed.

"Incoming!" Ironhide warned. A missile streaked towards them and took out a section of the ground in front of Ironhide and Bumblebee; a second blew up the truck, throwing the two Autobots back. Many of the humans were flung backwards; thankfully not many of them hit the ground hard enough to kill them.

"Anybody hurt? Everybody okay?" Will called.

Sam and Mikaela scrambled to their feet. They took in their surroundings for a moment. Horror filled Sam as he caught sight of Bumblebee. Mikaela turned at Sam's exclamation, "Bumblebee? No. Your legs! Your legs…" The yellow Autobot was determined, and tried crawling forwards, despite the fact that it wasn't working. "Here. Here, back, back, back, back! You all right? Please get up. Bumblebee? Get up! Ratchet!" The medic turned for a moment, but he couldn't fully stop to help. Soldiers ran to get cover.

"What the heck was that?" Will asked in the middle of smacking Epps on the shoulder.

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean, what am I talking about? They shot at us!"

"F-22 pilots would never fly below buildings. That's alien. That ain't friendly!"

"You got to get up. You're okay. You're okay," Sam encouraged. Bumblebee shook his helm.

"I can't," the Autobot whispered.

"Come on!"

"_Army Black Hawk inbound to your location. Over,_" a voice said over the radio. Epps spared a quick smile for Will.

"Alpha 273 degrees, 10 miles. November Victor, 1.2 clicks north," Epps informed the person over the radio. Each person jumped when a tank fired at the debris that Will and Epps were hiding behind. The tank drove forward, crushing a car as it did so. Civilians ran from the tank, some even darting in front of it to cross the street. Jazz and Ratchet, who had the Allspark safely in his front seat, wove their way through the cars that littered the road and tried to avoid all the humans running around.

Mikaela, who was struggling with her own emotions, caught sight of a tow truck parked across the street from where she was standing. She ran as hard as she could towards it.

Sam was sitting on a piece of concrete, Bumblebee still trying to crawl towards his friend. "Go, Sam. Get to safety," Bumblebee said.

"I'm not gonna leave you," Sam objected.

"Get the Allspark from Ratchet. Take it away from here. We'll take care of you."

Ironhide drove at the tank, barely dodging a missile as he did so. He transformed to avoid two well aimed ones that would've hit him straight on. He did a flip over them, firing on the ground to get an extra boost to miss crushing a poor young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jazz raced past Ironhide, transforming to land on the tank Decepticon. He pulled the barrel of the gun to keep the 'Con from shooting anymore missiles at the Autobot leader. The Decepticon transformed beneath him, and Jazz kicked at the missile launcher on the larger mech's shoulder. Jazz was thrown so that he crashed into a building.

Ironhide fired in the middle of yet another jump. Jazz joined in, rushing at the Decepticon to deliver an attack of his own.

Meanwhile, Ratchet transformed beside Bumblebee and Sam. "Here, take care of the Allspark, Sam. Bumblebee, I can't take care of you here. I promise to fix your legs when this is over. I promise." The Allspark was gently pushed into Sam's hands as Ratchet ran at the tank Decepticon, leaving the boy and his guardian.

Ratchet jumped over the Decepticon, digging his saw into the Decepticon's shoulder, cutting the arm off completely. Just as he landed, the limb hit the ground twitching before falling still. He transformed a servo into a gun and fired off three shots into the frame of the Decepticon. The tank former crashed into the ground.

While the Autobots were taking care of their battle, Mikaela smashed in the driver side window of the tow truck. She reached in, opened the door, and started to try to hotwire it.


	12. Ironhide Part 11

Megatron flew over a building and transformed, landing in the alleyway. "It's Megatron! Retreat! Move! Fall back!" Ratchet yelled. Jazz fired at Megatron, and the Decepticon leader took a shot of his own which threw the silver Autobot back.

"Fall back! Get our guys out of the way! Get out of here! Go! Get them out of the buggy! Move out! We need air cover down here now!" Will ordered. The soldiers began to help civilians away.

Mikaela drove up in the tow truck she'd hot wired. "Sam, help me with this," she said as she jumped down.

* * *

><p>Megatron grabbed onto Jazz and flew into the air. He held Jazz's pede, hanging him upside down. Just as Megatron was about to tear Jazz apart, Ironhide fired, catching the Decepticon leader in the face. Jazz was dropped, but the Autobot was able to get up fast enough to rejoin the fight.<p>

* * *

><p>"What's going on?" Will demanded.<p>

"Sir! That tank thing's getting back up," a soldier informed. Will hurried to the other man's side.

"Oh, these things just don't die," he turned at the sound of another Decepticon, Blackout, transforming on top of another buiding. "Oh, we're so dead."

"Wrap it around the head," Sam said to Mikaela from where he was standing on the tow truck. He looked up at Will's call.

"Where's the Cube?"

"Right there," the boy pointed to the ground where the Allspark was resting. "And take that and wrap it around the base and then put it around his neck. Okay?"

"Epps, get those Black Hawks here!" Will yelled from where he'd run past the tow truck. He caught sight of a tall undestroyed building which gave him an idea. He ran back to where Sam and Mikaela were trying to help Bumblebee still. "Okay."

"What?" Sam asked.

"Alright, I can't leave my guys back there, so here, take this flare. Okay, there's a tall, white building with statues on top. Go to the roof. Set the flare."

"No."

"Signal the chopper and set the flare."

"No, no. I can't do this!" Sam paniced. Will reached up and grabbed Sam's collar, pulling the younger towards him.

"Listen to me! You're a soldier now! All right? I need you to take this Cube," Will grabbed the Allspark and placed it in Sam's hands, "Get it into military hands while we hold them off, or a lot of people are going to die." He then turned to Mikaela. "You got to go. You got to go."

"No, I'm not leaving"

"You need to go. Go."

"No, I'm not leaving till I get Bumblebee out of here, okay?" She said. Not tearing her eyes away from Will, she moved back to Bumblebee.

"Army Black Hawks requested. Immediate evac for civilian boy with precious cargo. Headed to rooftop marked by flare," Epps said into the radio.

Meanwhile, Ironhide and Ratchet looked down at the boy. "Sam, we will protect you," Ironhide promised. Will yelled to Epps, and Sam stopped when Mikaela called his name. They shared a brief touching moment before Ironhide broke through it with his voice. "Sam! Get to the building! Move!"

"Decepticons, attack!" Megatron roared.

"Hit it!" A soldier roared. The tank Decepticon began to fire on the surrounding areas again.

"Move to cover!" Ironhide yelled as he and Ratchet returned fire. He rolled to avoid getting shot while Ratchet simply crouched. Sam ran as fast as he could. He couldn't stop when Blackout landed in infront of him. Ironhide ran in between Sam and Blackout, yelling a word of warning to the boy as he did. He picked up an empty care to absorb Blackout's fire. He was thrown back behind Sam who was forced to dodge the giant's fall. Blackout transformed and flew over his head.

"Ratchet! Watch the boy! I need to take care of Megatron myself!" Ironhide roared as he forced himself to get up. He didn't wait for a reply, instead running towards where Megatron was perched on a building. "Megatron! Come face me!"

"Prime!" Megatron roared. He transformed and headed straight for Ironhide. The Autobot leader jumped, catching Megatron's wings. The Decepticon dragged him through several buildings. Along with debris, they rolled across an open stretch of road. Both struggled to get a hold of the other. Megatron finally grabbed Ironhide's neck. "Humans don't deserve to live."

"You can't decided that for them," Ironhide growled.

"I can decide that you will die along with them!" Megatron threw Ironhide into the street where humans still were. They gave shrieks of fear and Megatron prepared himself to lunge forward. He pulled out a gun but Ironhide was faster, firing several shots off at once. Megatron was thrown back into the building behind him.

* * *

><p>Sam continued to run, Jazz, who'd taken Ironhides place, encouraged hin to keep moving. "Don't stop!" Jazz yelled as he fell back slightly to run beside Ratchet. Starscream performed a flip, ending it by landing in Sam's way. The human tripped, slamming his body into the ground. He scrambled away from the jet. "No!" Jazz roared as Starcream sent car after car up into the air. The jet fired at Ratchet, catching the medic across the chest before sending Jazz to the ground. Sam watched in fear of his life, catching sight of Starscream transforming and flying away. Ratchet was knocked over, and Jazz rejoined him on the ground. "Sam, get to the building!" Sam was back on his feet, running at full tilt.<p>

* * *

><p>Megatron got past Ironhide, flying over to where Sam was. He transformed behind the human, yelling, "Give me that Cube, boy!" Sam only stopped when a van ran into him, sending him to the ground. Upon making contact with the concrete, the Allspark sent out a pulse. Most of it was directed to one thing. The Autobot ship that so far, was ignored by the Decepticon. Sam reached the building, running inside.<p>

"You're not gonna get me. You're not gonna get me!" Sam said. Behind him, he heard someone break through the huge windows at the front of the building. By the roar that followed, Sam knew that Megatron was after him and him alone.

"I smell you, boy!" Sam quickly ran up the stairs. The floor beneath his feet began to break up as Megatron pushed himself through. "Maggot!" Sam ignored the insult, choosing to focus on the ridiculously long staircase.

* * *

><p>Mikaela drove the tow truck into a back allyway, dragging Bumblebee behind her. She paniced, placing her head on the steering wheel when the truck stopped moving. She could hear the men fighting, and she knew Sam was running for the rooftop. Slowly she turned to face Bumblebee. "Mikaela, you can do it. I believe in you," he said. With that comment, she thrust the truck into drive, pulling back out onto the road. Bumblebee gave a slight gasp in suprise, trying to regain some balance so he wouldn't be thrown around randomly.<p>

"I'll drive! You shoot!" Mikaela yelled. She put the truck in reverse. They drove, crashing into cars that sent spark flying up in Bumblebee's face. He swatted the cars away to try and keep her path clear. "Shoot! Shoot!" Bumblebee fired at Devastator, and the tank dodged a few, catching one directly in the chest. It wasn't enough to kill him though. With Bumblebee and the soldiers firing at him, he was soon overwhelmed. A shot landed right in his neck; he spun, landing in the building directly beside Will. Sheepishly, Bumblebee lifted his facemask with a finger. Mikeala jumped out to walked around to Bumblebee. "Nice shot."

"That tank is definitly dead now," a soldier said.

"Alright, let's go! We got business!" Will ordered.

* * *

><p>Sam finally reached the roof and was forced to jump over several different pipes to get back to open space. He smashed the back of the flare against the wall to let the military know where he was. "We've got the boy," the pilot of one of the helicopters said into his radio. A man reached forward to grab the cube just as Starscream hit the helicopter with a missle. Sam tried to warn them, but it came too late. They nearly killed him with the back blades.<p>

"Hang on, Sam!" Ironhide shouted from where he was running across rooftops to reach the human.

Megatron punched holes through the roof near Sam's feet. The boy had to run to avoid Megatron's grip. He climbed up while Sam grabbed onto a statue. "Is it fear or courage that compels you, fleshling?" Megatron asked, slowly approaching.

"Where do I go?" Sam whispered.

"Give me the Allspark and you may live to be my pet."

"I'm never giving you this Allspark!"

"Oh, so unwise," Megatron growled. He swung a ball and chain mace forward, destroying the part of the roof that kept the statue on the building. Sam was thrown, screaming, over the edge. And yet, he still did not let the Allspark go. Ironhide almost roughly caught Sam, bringing his servo against his chest.

"I've got you boy. Hold onto the Cube," Ironhide said. At that moment, he flipped away from the wall, bouncing his back off one than turning to hit his back on the opposite wall again and again to slow their descent. Megatron jumped over the edge, catching Ironhide's armour, and sending the Autobot leader to the ground that much faster. Megatron landed near Ironhide.

Gently, Ironhide uncurled his servo to reveal a rather unharmed Sam who still had a death grip on the Allspark. Sam looked around uncertainly. "Sam?" Ironhide softy called. It still made Sam jump and turn his head quickly to look at Ironhide's face. Sam quickly got to his feet to face Ironhide properly. "I've already failed Optimus, I will not fail you. You risked your life to protect the Cube."

"No sacrifice, no victory," Sam responed.

"If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must push the Cube into my chest. I will sacrifice myself to destroy it. Get away," Ironhide said. He pushed himself up. "It's you and me, Megatron."

"No, it's just me, Prime," Megatron growled.

"At the end of this day, only one shall remain." Above Sam, who had ducked into a huge crack in the ground, Megatron attacked Ironhide, sending him flying into a wall.

"You fight for the weak! That is why you lose!" Megatron yelled, picking Ironhide up by the face and throwing him.


	13. Ironhide Part 12

PLEASE, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, REVIEW! I'm losing my will to write! This story has _4 _reviews, and _12 _real chapters! I have received ZERO reviews for the lastest chapter of 'Anyone But Him'. I WON'T abandon stories unless there is no way to save them. This is one that I will continue. But I would like to know that I _matter, _even just a little. PLEASE! Yes, I write for my own enjoyment, but it helps _A LOT _when people review to let me know that they either enjoyed it or found this that I could fix. I'm really tempted to turn my back on this account and ALL of the stories on it except for the ones that I'm writing for other people. Rant: Complete.

* * *

><p>While Megatron and Ironhide fought, the human soldiers were preparing to take down Blackout. "Fighter jets in 60 seconds," Epps informed. He then turned his attention to giving orders to the pilots. "We got friendlies mixed with bad guys. Targets will be marked."<p>

"Hey," Will said, tapping Epps on the shoulder. "Bring the rain. Alright? Alright, let's kill these things." Epps ran out to another spot of cover where he could mark the target. "Move, move, move. Remember, aim low. Armour's weak under the chest." Will grabbed onto a motorcycle which was abandoned while his men set themselves up to be able to kill the Decepticon.

"Target marked. Still waiting," Epps said through the radio. He tried to keep his hand steady to keep the green dot on Blackout.

"_Time on target, 20 seconds_," was the reply.

"F-22s, we're still waiting," Epps said calmly while Will revved the engine of the motorcycle. The black soldier was sure Will was going to do something that would fit under the categories of 'highly dangerous' and 'just dumb'. It was at that point that Blackout noticed the green dot on his servo. He turned and fired at where the soldiers had just been. Will raced towards Blackout. The fighter jets fired at Blackout just as Will pushed off of the motorcycle, sliding on his back, firing at the Decepticon. Blackout hit the ground, twitched a few times, before falling still. Will got to his feet, already shouting orders again.

* * *

><p>Sam watched from cover as Ironhide practically crawled along the ground. Megatron ran forward, giving Ironhide a swift kick in the face. The smaller, much smaller, mech went flying. Above them Starscream tried to destroy the human air support. At least one of them fired at Megatron. While the Decepticon leader was distracted, Sam ran out into the battle field toward Ironhide. Megatron ran towards Sam and the Allspark, only to be tripped by Ironhide who swung out an arm at just the right time. Sam struggled back towards the Autobot and away from the Decpeticon. Both were crawling towards him.<p>

"I'll kill you. Mine! Allspark!" A sparking Megatron roared.

"Sam! Put the Cube in my chest! Now!" Ironhide yelled. "Sam! No Sam!" The human boy shoved the Allspark into Megatron's chest. The Cube began to break apart in streaks of red as it consumed Megatron's spark, destroying itself and Megatron at once. Megatron reeled back, clawing at his chest, trying to reverse what had been done. He fell to his knees, convulsing badly, before collapsing on his back next to Sam. Ironhide stood, approaching Megatron's corpse.

"Hold up," Will warned his own men. Jazz and Ratchet approached with the humans staying back. Probably just in case Megatron sprung back to life as well as giving the Autobots some room. Ironhide crouched to be closer to Sam.

"I owe you my life," the Autobot leader said. "We all owe you." After saying that he stood. Mikaela drove up with Bumblebee, drawing Sam's attention. "Thank you, all of you. You showed us great bravery in standing up against our enemies." Ironhide trailed off slightly, his gaze sad and hurting. Almost none of the humans knew why. Only Sam, Mikaela, Will, and Epps knew the true reason. They each exchanged a glance. Ratchet stepped up and placed a gentle servo on his friend's arm.

"He would be proud of everyone here, Ironhide," Ratchet said softly.

"Sir, may I continue to remain with the boy?" Bumblebee asked. Ironhide looked to the yellow Autobot with a nod.

"If both of you want to remain together, then go ahead. The war's basically over it seems anyways," Ironhide replied. He watched Ratchet step away from the group, knowing exactly where the medic was going.

"What's the black one's name?" Will asked Sam softly.

"That's Ironhide, the Autobot leader," Sam replied.

Will took a step forward. "Ironhide?" he asked, gaining the black mech's attention. "What else can we do to help?" That was the start of a friendship between the Autobot leader and soon-to-be NEST leader.


	14. Ironhide Part 13

Hey, I'm back! Didn't stop writing, but I lost the want to write several of the stories on this account. I haven't given up on them all, but it may take some time for me to get back into the flow of updating. Sorry for the ridiculous wait! I'll try to update again soon. Thanks for the support! Please enjoy, and review!

* * *

><p><em>N.E.S.T base - Diego Garcia<em>

Ironhide sighed as jumped down from the roof of the base where he'd been repairing a hole that had been created by Jazz showing of his weapons. The Autobot leader had been busy all morning dealing first with making repairs to the base and trying to stay patient with the antics of the human government. Needless to say, Ironhide hadn't been having much luck. His optics darted over to the ship and he felt his spark sink further. Ratchet hadn't made every much progress. And Ironhide was beginning to lose hope.

"Ironhide, why don't you take a break? Go refuel. Nothing's gonna happen if you do," Will said, shattering Ironhide's thoughts. The black mech looked down at the human that had become a good friend of his.

"And let Jazz shoot another hole in the roof? Not going to happen," Ironhide responded. He stretched his back struts and sighed. Words alone couldn't describe how much he wished Optimus would just get up and be at his side once again. The second in command had always been a calm, fair leader, even though he never accepted his role. Whenever Ironhide needed it, Optimus would step up and take control.

A sudden clang once again brought Ironhide out of his dark thoughts. He turned to face the ship, and watched Ratchet scramble down the ramp. The medic rushed over and grabbed Ironhide's arm. "Come on!" Ratchet said so suddenly that Ironhide could only numbly allow himself to be dragged by his CMO. Will walked over to Epps who was watching the situation with curious eyes. The saw Ratchet pull a few tools out of the ship to make room for Ironhide who followed the greenish-yellow mech.

Epps leaned towards Will slightly and asked, "What's goin' on?"

"I have the feeling we're gonna find out..." Will replied in a worried tone. He jumped when there was another clang that tore through the air. Afterwards, there was the soft sound, at least to Will and Epps who were standing a fair distance away, of under-used gears. In a few minutes, the human soldiers were able to hear the voices of Ironhide and Ratchet. It was then that they watched a new Autobot weakly, slowly, walk down the ramp. Ironhide and Ratchet were on either side of the bot, keeping the being upright.

Will's eyes widened at the sight of the new Cybertronian. The bot seemed to be male, with long limbs, and a broad chest. He had an antenna on other side of his helmet, and had striking blue optics that flickered from exhaustion. He looked... delicate compared to the other Autobots. With intricate details and metal that appeared to be twined with other pieces. What worried Will though, more than how weak the Autobot appeared, was the damage that had been done to mech, with long gashes still remaining. The silver of welds still marred the material that made up the Autobot's frame. Despite the wounds, the Autobot pulled away from the help the over two were offering.

Ironhide barked something out in Cybertronian that brought the Autobots running. Their optics widened in surprise and delight as the Autobot straightened. "Humans, I want you to meet Optimus. Second in command of the Autobots, hero, and one of the greatest bots that lived. You had us fraggin' worried, Optimus," Ironhide said, finishing off by giving Optimus a pat of the back that made the taller stumble slightly before regaining his balance. His optics roamed his surroundings, committing every detail to memory. He nodded to the humans his comrades called allies, though he did not speak.

"How ya feelin'?" Jazz questioned, walking over and clasping the much taller's arm briefly. Optimus was slow to respond.

"Glad to be alive, though I have certainly felt better in the past," Optimus finally spoke. His deep rolling baritone caught the humans off guard. Ironhide, however, merely gave a mirthful laugh.

"By Primus, I've missed your voice! We need to get you up to date on what's happened. The Allspark's gone. It's destroyed along with Megatron. Seems like the war's over," Ironhide said.

"Apologies, Prime, but that seems hard to believe."

"It's true. Samuel Witwicky used the Allspark to end Megatron's life, destroying the Cube in the process," Ratchet added helpfully. Optimus dipped his helm and looked to Sam when Bumblebee pointed out who the boy was. Before anyone could say anything more, Optimus shut his optics off and appeared to fight for his balance. Ratchet gently placed a servo on his friend's arm and made the suggestion, "Get some rest, Optimus. We'll catch you up later. You need to get your strength back." Optimus weakly agreed, and Ironhide led his friend off to get him settled, thankful to once again have Optimus awake.


End file.
